(5 Aug 2024)
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Paris – 5 August 2024
1. Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan walking onto stage
2. Rabadan with artist Mathieu Forget during press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Pierre Rabadan, Paris Deputy Mayor:
"First of all, it’s not athletes, plural, who fell ill, because I’ve been hearing all morning. It’s one athlete who’s ill and she was taken to hospital. She went to the clinic at the Olympic village. She then went back to her room. First, I hope she will soon be free of inconvenience which I don’t know the nature of, but I hope she’ll feel better soon. There’s also plenty of other athletes who are sick at the village and have not swam in the Seine. Them, we hear less of. We need to wait until we have all the facts before rushing to conclusions."
4. Rabadan and Forget during press conference
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Pierre Rabadan, Paris Deputy Mayor:
"It’s not about deciding to swim or not. There are rules. There are European regulations. We take samples every day to know whether the water quality is good enough to swim. It’s rather factual. I think that when it’s 35 degrees Celsius in the city and everyone is looking for a place to cool down – we’re trying to create new ones – reconnecting with the water, our swimming plan, it’s not just about those two months when people will be able to take a dip – although that’s important. It’s about reviving ecosystems, taking care of the environment, making oceans more healthy by limiting wastewater discharges, developing the flora and fauna in these environments where we live. It’s about taking care of the planet. That’s what’s at stake behind all of this."
6. Journalist
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Pierre Rabadan, Paris Deputy Mayor:
"After a while, we have to stop looking at this from all sides. It works. We did what we needed to do. There’ll be more than enough people to enjoy it and I think the issue will be similar to the one we have with fan zones currently. Very soon, we won’t have enough space for all the people who want to swim (in the Seine)."
8. End of press conference
STORYLINE:
Paris’ Deputy Mayor, Pierre Rabadan called for people to wait for "all the facts before rushing to conclusions" regarding a Belgian athlete becoming ill after swimming in the Seine River.
"There’s also plenty of other athletes who are sick at the village and have not swam in the Seine," Rabadan said at a briefing in Paris on Monday.
Belgium’s Olympic committee announced Sunday that it would withdraw its team from the mixed relay triathlon at the Paris Olympics after one of its competitors who swam in the Seine River fell ill.
Claire Michel, who competed in the women’s triathlon Wednesday, “is unfortunately ill and will have to withdraw from the competition,” the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee said in a statement.
"I hope she will soon be free of inconvenience which I don’t know the nature of, but I hope she’ll feel better soon," Rabadan said.
"We take samples every day to know whether the water quality is good enough to swim," he added.
Olympic triathletes plunged into the Seine River Monday morning as the mixed relay event got underway after organizers said the bacteria levels in the long-polluted Paris waterway were at acceptable levels.
Paris spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on infrastructure improvements to clean up the river that flows through its center.
AP video shot by Alexander Turnbull
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