(4 Jul 2024)
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Paris - 4 July 2024
1. Various of swimmer Joel Stratte-McClure posing in the River Seine with US flag and Notre Dame in the background
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Stratte-McClure, swimmer: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID++
"Today is the 4th of July and we love the 4th of July, American Independence Day. So, I've come back here to take a swim in the Seine before the Olympics. I'm very impressed with everything the French have done to try to clean up this river, which is filthy, and want to celebrate it. The last time I swam in this very spot was in 1976, for the cover of a magazine called the Paris Metro. The front-page title was Our Man in the Seine gets to the bottom of the dirty river and comes back alive. So, I'm hoping to come back alive from a shorter swim today. That will prove, one, that I support the clean-up that the French have done, and, two, that I can't recognize E. coli when I'm in the water. So, I may or may not, wish I hadn't taken the swim."
3. McClure entering the river
4. Various of McClure swimming in the River Seine
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Stratte-McClure, swimmer: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID++
"Well, if things go really bad and I don't survive the swim, it will at least give an alert to the American and other swimmers in the triathlon that maybe they shouldn't do it. So I perhaps will have saved hundreds of lives. I can take that. I can make that sacrifice."
6. McClure swimming in the River Seine
STORYLINE:
American swimmer Joel Stratte-McClure braved the murky waters of the River Seine Thursday to celebrate the Fourth of July and highlight the French government's efforts to clean up the river before Olympic games event start.
McClure, 75, who last swam in the Seine in 1976 for a magazine cover shoot, said he was impressed with the progress made in cleaning up the river, but still had concerns about its safety.
"I'm hoping to come back alive from a shorter swim today," McClure said.
"That will prove, one that I support the clean-up that the French have done, and two that I can't recognize E. coli when I'm in the water. So, I may or may not, wish I hadn't taken the swim."
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo had initially planned to bathe in the Seine to prove its cleanliness on 23 June 2024, but this was postponed because of heavy rainfall in May and the river's very high flow rate, as well as the hurried organisation of legislative elections.
McClure emerged from the water after a brief swim, declaring the water "fantastic" and expressing hope that others would follow his lead and take advantage of the cleaner river.
"I drank enough so that if there's something in it, I will die," he said.
"But I took it for the team. And other swimmers who are coming for the Olympics will know that if I don't die, that it's safe to swim in."
Unsafe levels of E. coli have been found in the Seine River for the third consecutive week, according to test results published Friday June 28 2024, less than a month before the Paris Olympics.
The test results by monitoring group Eau de Paris reveal contamination levels consistently above the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters determined by the World Triathlon Federation for competitions.
Marathon swimming and triathlon events are scheduled to take place in the river near the Alexandre III bridge during the Olympics, which begin on July 26.
AP Video shot by Nicolas Garriga
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