You know you have reached peak pre-Olympic hysteria when the host city mayor jumps into the host city river just because they can.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, launched herself into the Seine this week. Not in response to a suggestion from an aggrieved citoyen or citoyenne that she should go and do so, but to celebrate the fulfilment of a pledge that the French capital’s iconic waterway would be ready to play its part in the Paris24 opening ceremony and as the venue for the Olympic triathlon swim legs and the marathon swim.
For almost the entire period since the Seine’s role was announced there have been grave doubts the river which runs through Paris would be fit for these purposes in the city’s really big show.
Rivers flowing through major cities are not universally known for the pristine quality of their water. The Blue Danube is brown more often than not. New York’s East River is more famous as the resting place of those who cross paths with the mob than for its potability. Melbourne’s Yarra has suffered years-long ridicule as the upside down river, the sediment merely the least offensive component of what allegedly floats on or near the surface.
Even when Mayor Hidalgo tested the Seine’s waters, it was as much a health and safety check as a ringing endorsement of water quality. Between announcement and confirmation the Seine was unfit for purpose most of the time. Mostly that was for reasons common to big-city waterways, but measures taken to improve the river also ran afoul -literally – of storm water surges and other unexpected events. The e-coli levels, along with other indices of the contamination levels, remained stubbornly at the ‘merde’ end of the scale.
But now, in what might be the first, but certainly won’t be the last, photo-finish of the Games, the Seine has won the mayoral seal of approval. Hidalgo essayed a passable imitation of a 100m individual medley – part crawl, part breaststroke – entering the water near the Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame accompanied by Paris24 chief Tony Estanguet, representatives (volunteers, presumably) of local swimming clubs and engineers who worked on the clean-up project.
The waterway which sustained unsafe contamination levels as recently as the beginning of July is now safe for swimming. Mayor Hidalgo’s swim has clinched the deal. Best not to chance your luck again. That would be the very definition of in-Seine-ity.
The mayoral swim just a few days before the opening ceremony may also mark the end of the desperate search for pre-Games news stories. From experience, Olympic reporting covers a routine cycle which probably persists even in these days of tighter budgets and off-site news hubs. Given the scale of the Games, media arrive well in advance of the stories they will cover.
What to write about? Heaps about last-minute work at any of the venues is one staple storyline. The shock revelation that there are more people wanting to see the Olympics than tickets available (who knew) will already have been well mined but now last-minute tickets may be coming back on sale from unused allocations and scalpers will be asking exorbitant prices for others. Hotels and restaurants will have jacked up their prices as the sort of people who can afford tickets flock into town.
The Olympic Village? That will be crowded (and hands over the children’s eyes now, some athletes will be having sex there over the next few weeks. Hands will be wrung over Village crowding – despite these heroic efforts at bed sharing – but also over the fact that some superstars are opting to shun the delights of communal living in favour of staying out. Need we add that will invariably be at five-star digs.
Then the competition starts and as Carl Lewis famously observed about the futility of boycotts we all forget about who’s not there and focus on those who are. Football, rugby sevens, archery and handball get under way in the days immediately before Friday 26 July’s opening ceremony, then it’s non-stop action through to closing ceremony day, Sunday 11 August, with gold medals in 10 sports – including the women’s marathon – that day.
And, provided there hasn’t been a heavy rain event in the preceding days, the good citizens of Paris can enjoy a swim in their iconic river any time from 12 August onwards.
Down here in the southern hemisphere I suspect many of us will just be catching up on lost sleep. And rejoicing in the exploits of our biggest ever travelling band of Australian Olympic athletes.
Good luck to them all.
