With just 105 days to go until the Paris Olympics, there are still doubts about the chances of France hosting the Games, although security concerns and the water quality of the Seine remain concerns.
It is worth noting that when Paris hosted the first Olympic Games in history (1900), the swimming competition was held on the Seine, which was crowded with tourists. However, as the pollution of the river intensified, in 1923 the government firmly banned the public from swimming in the Seine.
The City of Paris has invested heavily in the remediation of the Seine, amounting to 1.4 billion euros. They plan to connect 23,000 homes and 260 boats near the riverbank to the sewage system to prevent sewage from being discharged directly into the Seine.
The Seine River was once known as the "Little Ganges" of Europe, and the difficulty of governance can be seen.
However, there is still a gap between the ideal and the reality, and the water quality of the Seine has not improved significantly. This could lead to the risk of cancellation of triathlon competitions, which many people are shocked.
This year's Paris Olympics can be described as a frequent situation, and doubts about Western manipulation are everywhere. For example, Belarusian and Russian athletes were initially denied participation but later changed their minds and some Chinese gold medal events were canceled that were not a Western forte.
With 105 days left before the opening, it will be interesting to see whether there will be more "surprises" in this Olympic Games.
Previously, a blogger exposed the true face of Paris, raising questions about the so-called fashion capital. In fact, the state of sanitation in Paris is even less than that of the mainland.
However, all this has affected the Olympic programme.
Last year, Paris Mayor Hidalgo announced that part of the water sports for the Paris 2024 Olympics would be held on the Seine, and that the ban on swimming in the Seine would be lifted from 2025. However, the reality is that even if citizens are allowed to swim, athletes are wary.
Russia Today reported on April 10 that if the water quality of the Seine River does not improve, the triathlon swimming stage of the Paris Olympics may be postponed or cancelled.
The event includes swimming, cycling and running, and the removal of the swimming session will make it renamed "Ironman".
In the face of such water quality problems, one cannot help but wonder if the Paris government was so negligent in the management of the Seine in the past? The Paris government explained that the main reasons for the deterioration of water quality were excessive rainfall and insufficient water disinfection facilities, and hoped that this would become a fact.