Wild Swimming - News Room

The Guardian reports: Standing in his swimming trunks, Gilles looked up at the modern grey apartment buildings and trees that lined the Paris canal. He took a deep breath, then dived into the dark mass of water that had been officially banned to swimmers for decades. “Bliss,” he said after doing 500m of front crawl, occasionally brushing past bits of green algae in the new temporary swimming zone at La Villette canal basin, where Parisians can take their first legal dip in a

The Local FR reports: It’s official. The water in the Paris canal is clean enough to swim in meaning Parisians won’t have an excuse not to take a dip this summer. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised Parisians they will be able to swim in the city’s canal this summer after test results revealed the water is clean enough for health standards. Paris authorities had already voted to allow free swimming in the Bassin de la Villette which links the Canal St Martin and the Canal d

The Telegraph reports: “Anne Hidalgo pledges to end a swimming ban for Parisians in place since 1923 by having residents of the French capital bathing in the river after the 2024 Olympic Games she hopes will be held in the city.” The announcement was made yesterday as the Mayer “…pledged to have resident of the French capital swimming in the Seine river by 2024, in her latest bid to clean up the city.” “She said it was her dearest wish that the swimming phase of the Games’ tr

Swimming in Paris has a connection with both Leicester and the Olympics. Leicester swimmer John/Jack Arthur Jarvis won 108 swimming championships including two golds at the Paris Olympics in 1900. He learned to swim in the canal in Leicester and founded the Leicester Swimming Club. He was one of only 15 swimmers honored at the official opening of America’s Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968. Discover the history of swimming… #WaterSports #Leicestershire #Paris #SwimmingandDiving #

River races in Paris were once a regular part of life in the capital and Impressionist’s paintings remind us of the hay day of outdoor swimming back when the waters were clean and life was good. Yet things have changed; river pollution has kept both fish and human swimmers out of the Seine for more than 60 years. Back in the 80s things started to turn around. When he was Mayor of Paris, former President Jacques Chirac vowed to clean up the cities artery and to swim in it once