On Wednesday, the City of Paris confirmed the extension of swimming in the Seine. The public will be able to splash around in the river until September 7 at Grenelle and until the 14th at Bercy. While the attendance has just reached 100.000 people since the bathing sites opened on July 5, Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor in charge of sport, welcomes this popular success and this tangible legacy of the Paris 2024 Games.
Did you expect such an influx of public?
It was difficult to project in terms of figures at the start, it depended a lot on the weather. I didn't really have a goal. Despite a capricious and rainy July, I'm satisfied. Opening three swimming sites at the same time was a gamble. It caused a lot of talk, there was mockery, mistrust. The three sites largely found their audience; it's a great popular success. I'm happy with the way people have taken ownership of these spaces.
The legacy of the Games takes on its full meaning?
Yes, because from the very beginning of the bid, the mayor wanted to make the Seine an asset and seize the opportunity of the Games to improve water quality. We corrected and repaired the damage caused by human pollution. Thanks to the mobilization of Paris, the regional prefect, upstream communities, and the SIAAP (Interdepartmental Syndicate for the Sanitation of the Paris Metropolitan Area), we were able to keep a very old promise in a very short time and be ready for 2024. Nine events took place in the Seine, despite much mistrust, and from 2025 onwards we will deliver three swimming sites, which attract a very large audience. The Games served the Seine, and the Seine served the Games. It was a bold, innovative bet, and we are very happy to have made it.
Was it obvious, given this success, to extend for a few weeks?
It's a bit like the Games: before, there were a lot of skeptics, people who predicted a catastrophe, and in the end it was a success. Given the 13 days of closure in July due to the rain, we thought about the possibilities of opening a little longer. It will be open for an extra week, with the same hours, at Grenelle, and two weeks at Bercy starting at 8 a.m. – to compensate for the closure of Bras Marie, which is stopping for reasons of coexistence with navigation. We managed to find this balance, without impacting other activities on the Seine, by offering a minimum swimming offer until the 14th, and I hope also the weekend of September 20-21.
Aren't you worried about the weather forecast? It's not very optimistic for the coming week.
I saw that a deterioration was coming, but I'm trying to be optimistic. There will be some disruptions, but there should be days without rain. I hope we'll be able to make the most of it. In any case, we took this risk and I know it meets a significant demand. Quite a few people have told me they didn't have time to go there and would like to swim there.
Some swimmers have complained about the lack of dedicated areas for competitive swimming. Is this something you might implement in the future?
We didn't want to create additional pools, but urban swimming areas. It's not the same thing. We're going to take a look at the three sites, see what can be improved, and take the feedback into account. I'm not closing the door, but it's still too early to talk about it. So far, the bathers' experience is close to being unanimously successful.
