Marathon swimmers dive into River Seine amid concerns over dirty water and strong currents

PARIS —

A bridge with graceful statues overlooks an Olympic open-water course like no other. The Eiffel Tower, the golden-domed Invalides and other Parisian landmarks provide a breathtaking backdrop. Still, there was no escaping concerns about the safety of swimming in the long-polluted Seine River, not to mention its strong currents.

An enthusiastic group of endurance swimmers took to the water on a cloudy, cool Wednesday morning, their only chance to test the river before handing out gold medals.

The training session was given the green light around 4 a.m. when World Aquatics received the results of the daily tests, which showed the water was within acceptable guidelines for pathogenic bacteria. That was the day after another test run was canceled due to less favorable readings.

From the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal (2016 Olympic champion) to Irish star Daniel Wiffen, who was competing in open water for the first time, most competitors jumped at the chance to swim the 1.67km course through the centre of the French capital after doing most of their training in the pool.

The women’s 10km marathon will be held on Thursday, followed by the men’s race on Friday.

“I was very happy that we could train today,” van Rouwendaal told The Associated Press, wrapped in a towel shortly after emerging from the cold water. “We could see what the course is like and where we had to swim and we could feel the current a little bit.”

The three American competitors all participated in the training session, but no one put their heads under water. They used paddleboards to get a feel for the course without the risk of swallowing water that could cause illness.

“We wanted to minimize the risk of the water getting into your body as much as possible,” U.S. swimmer Ivan Puskovitch told the AP. “Because even if the water is swimmable and the levels are safe, there’s still some risk. And I think it goes without saying that the risk here is a little bit higher than most open-water venues.”

Before diving into the water, Austrian swimmers Felix Auboeck and Jan Hercog checked out the conditions from the Pont Alexandre III, the famous bridge that overlooks the starting buoy and finish slide.

“I think if someone says they’re not worried at all, they’re probably lying,” Auboeck said. “I’m worried. I hope and trust the organization in the sense that they’ll only let us in if it’s safe enough. But of course you’re worried, because nobody wants to get sick.”

Auboeck certainly understands the appeal of having open water on the Seine, the river that flows through one of the most picturesque cities in the world.

“It’s super exciting that this is the landscape where we’re racing,” he said, looking at the Eiffel Tower. “It’s probably the best thing we can do for the sport.”

World Aquatics canceled a test run on Tuesday over concerns about fluctuating bacteria levels in the waterway. Despite massive efforts to clean up the Seine, water quality has been a constant concern during the Games.

However, officials said they are confident that both open water races will proceed without any problems, especially as it will be sunny in the afternoon with little chance of rain.

“We’ve done the water quality testing and I know that’s really well done. It’s not just the results that we want. It’s the real results,” said Britta Kamrau, a former open water world champion from Germany who now serves on the World Aquatics technical committee. “I’m not worried about the athletes getting sick.”

However, she was quick to add that the nature of the sport – which is played in lakes, oceans and rivers around the world – always raises concerns about water quality.

“It’s open water swimming after all,” Kamrau said. “You never have clean water like in the pool.”

Open water athletes do most of their training in the controlled conditions of a swimming pool. Hungarian David Betlehem said he would not enter the river until the event itself and criticized organizers for going ahead with their plans despite the potential health risks.

“The athletes, we don’t have a choice. You’re kind of a pawn,” Bethlehem told the AP. “If we want to change things, all the athletes have to say no, we don’t want to swim there. But there are athletes who say, ‘OK, maybe we can.’”

This is not the first time that questions have been raised about the safety of the water at an Olympic open-water venue. There were major concerns about sewage-filled water at Copacabana Beach in the run-up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, but the competition went off without any serious problems.

The Seine is unique for another reason: it is the first time that the Olympic open-water race, introduced in Beijing in 2008, has been held on a river.

Previous races have been held in the Beijing Rowing Basin, the Serpentine Lake in London’s Hyde Park, the ocean in Rio and Tokyo Bay.

The Seine current has been measured at 2-3 mph, a significant challenge when swimming against the current. During the training session, some swimmers seemed to be barely making progress as they struggled back to the finish line.

“If you were following the current, it was amazing,” van Rouwendaal. “You could swim on your back and you felt super powerful. And on the way back you think, ‘Wow.’”

Triathlon competitions have been held in the river before, but the schedule was disrupted by daily water quality measurements.

Now it’s time for open water, which at least had a back-up plan in case the Seine proved unsafe. The races would be moved to Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the site of the rowing and canoeing events.

The Seine open water course covers a longer section of the river than the triathlon events, starting and finishing at Pont Alexandre III. Each race consists of six laps.

Since 1923, swimming in the Seine has been prohibited, with a few exceptions, because the water is considered too toxic.

Paris undertook an ambitious plan to clean up the river, with 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in infrastructure improvements, including the construction of a large basin to collect excess rainwater and prevent sewage from flowing into the river.

Four triathletes, out of more than 100 who competed in the men’s and women’s individual races last week, fell ill in the days that followed, but it was unclear whether the water was the cause.

Belgian triathlete Claire Michel was among those who fell ill, forcing her country to withdraw from the team event. Some news sources reported that she had contracted E. coli after competing in the individual event and had been hospitalized for several days.

Michel said in an Instagram post on Tuesday that it was a virus and not E. coli that made her sick.