PARIS – On the morning of July 31st, fifty-five female triathletes dove into the Seine River just beneath the Pont Alexandre III for the women’s individual triathlon, following a period of delays and extensive cleanup efforts. This event was the first official swimming event in the Seine for the Olympic Games.
There has been significant controversy surrounding this topic, as the city of Paris has spent upwards of 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to clean the Seine River. This has upset citizens, who feel that their money has gone to waste; they even staged a “poop protest” before the Olympics.
Why it Matters: Ivan Puskovitch (Team USA swimmer) voiced his concern, saying, “At the end of the day, it’s the Olympics and the safety of the athletes has to come first. It’s definitely a big point of anxiety for me especially since this is my first games,” Puskovitch told KVUE.
Key Points
- Weeks before the Opening Ceremony, a “poop protest” took place on June 23rd.
- The pledge by Emmanuel Macron (President of France) and Anne Hidalgo (Mayor of Paris) to prove the river’s cleanliness by swimming in it sparked an online campaign that went viral, with a website and hashtag: #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin, this translates to, “I shit in the Seine on June 23.”
Broader View
- An anonymous individual created the online campaign. This person is expressing frustration not only about the financial costs associated with cleaning the Seine River in preparation for the Paris Olympics, but also about President Macron’s failure to address pressing social issues such as inequality, poverty, and community tensions. The 2024 Paris Olympics are being positioned as a potential turning point for France, particularly after a period of significant civil unrest due to the “Yellow Vest” movement. However, this person feels that government resources have been unjustly allocated. “The problem is that all the resources that have been invested have not been to resolve all the social problems we have at the moment, we have the feeling of being abandoned. We see where their priority was,” the individual told Actu Paris.
