Unseasonal rainfall leaves Seine safe swimming plan in tatters at Paris 2024

Downpours expose risks in Olympic swimming plans

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, swam in the Seine before the Games started to demonstrate safety improvements. Picture: AP

In early May the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, Tony Estanguet, and other dignitaries officially opened a vast subterranean chamber near Austerlitz station in the south-east of the French capital.

Measuring 30m deep and 50m across, the cathedral-like receptacle, its roof held up by 20 enormous pillars, took 42 months to build, at a total cost of more than €90m.