A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
French officials say the Seine River is now clean enough for Olympic swimming. Yesterday, the mayor of Paris attempted to prove it by taking a dip. The river met safety standards just in time. The games are just eight days away. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley was out on the riverbanks to watch the mayor.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Journalists and spectators crowded the banks and bridges of the Seine to watch as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo put on her goggles and slipped into the murky waters.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
BEARDSLEY: She was accompanied by dozens of staff members who turned the river into a pool party on a sunny day. Hidalgo emerged from the water to address the media still in her wetsuit.
ANNE HIDALGO: It's amazing. You know, it was a dream for us. We worked a lot and very hard for that. And it's also for the planet, you know, and for the river and for the ocean. We did it, we did it.
BEARDSLEY: Heavy rains this summer have pushed E. Coli levels beyond acceptable limits. Paris, like many old cities, has a combined sewer system where wastewater and stormwater share the same pipes. Heavy or prolonged rains can mean wastewater overspill into the Seine. We test every day, says Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan, who's in charge of the river.
PIERRE RABADAN: This is clean. Don't think that we just deciding one time now we can swim. We have tests every day. If the water is not good, we will not go in. It's just a scientific position.
HIDALGO: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Hidalgo said she had a thought for former Paris mayor and French president Jacques Chirac, who always wanted to swim in the Seine. He never did. The Olympics accelerated the cleaning process. In the last nine years, some $1.5 billion have been spent, including to construct giant tanks that can temporarily hold millions of gallons of untreated wastewater in case of heavy rains. Olympic committee head and three-time slalom canoeing champion Tony Estanguet swam alongside Hidalgo.
TONY ESTANGUET: Yeah, today, it's a very important milestone because it's the confirmation that we are ready for the Games.
BEARDSLEY: Officials say heavy or sudden rains can still overwhelm the sewage system. But if it stays dry, the triathlon and distant swimming will take place on the iconic river. Estanguet says the Olympics is also about leaving behind a better city for Parisians.
ESTANGUET: It's so meaningful to use the Games to transform the city of Paris, to leave a very important legacy, for the people to have the opportunity to swim.
BEARDSLEY: Parisians who watched from the riverbanks were divided. Sarah Prot can't wait to take a dip.
SARAH PROT: Always been a dream to swim in the Seine. Politicians have been talking about it for, you know, many years now. Yeah, absolutely.
ARNAUD GÉRARD: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: Arnaud Gérard says what Hidalgo did is important.
GÉRARD: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "And it's also important for us Parisians to see our mayor swim," he says. So will he follow her example?
PROT: Oh, no, no, no. No, no. No, no.
BEARDSLEY: Oh, no, he says. I think the Seine's still a little too dirty.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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