
-
McLaren's Norris says it's 'our turn' for success
-
Lessons and liquids: buried alive in Myanmar's earthquake
-
Trump tariffs spark fears for Asian jobs, exporting sectors
-
Stocks and dollar sink, havens rally as Trump tariffs fan trade war
-
Runners fly to North Korea for first post-Covid Pyongyang Marathon
-
Hamilton rubbishes claims he's lost faith in Ferrari
-
Nintendo Switch 2 sparks excitement despite high price
-
Sri Lanka's crackdown on dogs for India PM's visit sparks protest
-
S Korea police raise security levels ahead of impeachment verdict
-
China vows 'countermeasures' to sweeping new US tariffs
-
Trump jolts allies, foes and markets with tariff blitz
-
France says EU to target US online services after Trump tariffs
-
Tsunoda vows to bring 'something different' after Red Bull promotion
-
Verstappen not happy with Tsunoda-Lawson Red Bull swap
-
Experts accuse 54 top Nicaragua officials of grave abuses
-
Remains of 30th victim of Los Angeles fires found
-
EU to target US online services after Trump tariffs: France
-
How Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs will impact China
-
Malaysia suspends search for long-missing flight MH370
-
Search for long-missing flight MH370 suspended: Malaysia minister
-
Europe hits out at Trump tariffs, keeps door open for talks
-
Myanmar's junta chief to head to Bangkok summit as quake toll surpasses 3,000
-
Lawson vows to prove he belongs in F1 after shock of Red Bull axing
-
Australia sweats through hottest 12 months on record: official data
-
Livestock theft is central to jihadist economy in west Africa
-
South African artist champions hyenas in 'eco-queer' quest
-
Danish PM in 'unity' Greenland visit amid US takeover threats
-
Taiwan says US tariffs 'highly unreasonable'
-
Lawson says ruthless Red Bull axing was 'tough to hear'
-
Heat humble Celtics for sixth straight win, Thunder roll on
-
Trump escalates trade war with sweeping global tariffs
-
Japan says US tariffs 'extremely regrettable', may break WTO rules
-
South Koreans anxious, angry as court to rule on impeached president
-
Juve at in-form Roma with Champions League in the balance
-
Injuries put undermanned Bayern's title bid to the test
-
Ovechkin scores 892nd goal -- three away from Gretzky's NHL record
-
Australian former rugby star Petaia signs for NFL's Chargers
-
China says opposes new US tariffs, vows 'countermeasures'
-
Athletics world watching as 'Grand Slam Track' prepares for launch
-
Heat humble Celtics for sixth straight win, Cavs top Knicks
-
Quake-hit Myanmar's junta chief to head to Bangkok summit
-
New Spielberg, Nolan films teased at CinemaCon
-
Shaken NATO allies to meet Trump's top diplomat
-
Israel's Netanyahu arrives in Hungary, defying ICC warrant
-
Shiny and deadly, unexploded munitions a threat to Gaza children
-
Stocks tank, havens rally as Trump tariffs fan trade war
-
Altomare hangs on to tie defending champ Korda at LPGA Match Play
-
Paraguay gold rush leaves tea producers bitter
-
Health concerns swirl as Bolivian city drowns in rubbish
-
Syria says deadly Israeli strikes a 'blatant violation'

As Olympics brace for Seine dip, rogue swimmers say water's fine
While the 2024 Olympics will stage events in the Seine river from the ornate Alexandre III bridge, a proud declaration of the waterway's environmental renewal, many swimmers in the capital are already defying decades-long bans to take the plunge.
Fears over pollution and safety led to a ban on swimming in the Seine and the Paris canals in 1923, though application of the rules has been relaxed in recent years.
One group of pioneers calls itself "Les Ourcq Polaires" -- a pun invoking polar bears and the name of the canal that is a favourite swimming site, running northeast out of the capital.
In five years, none of their swimmers have been fined, said one member, Laurent Sitbon, and they have been dragged out of the water by police only once.
Thirty years ago, Jacques Chirac, Paris mayor at the time, boasted that the Seine was becoming a "clean river" and that he would soon go for a swim -- though he never did.
But the 2024 Olympic Games organisers plan to hold the triathlon and the open-water swimming events in the Seine, with French authorities investing 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to clean up the river.
Already pools have been roped off in the Ourcq canal for the annual Paris Plages summer events in recent years, and permanent venues for the general public are scheduled to open in the region by 2025.
On the first Sunday in July, the Polaires organised a dip in the Seine. Swimmers lined the railing on a barge moored at the Ile-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, where the Paralympic athlete's village is being built.
"I can't wait to swim in the Seine! It's something else than a swimming pool," said one swimmer, Celine Debunne.
- 'We've paved the way' -
At 8 pm, with little traffic on the river, around 20 people took to the water for a one-hour outing, covering two kilometres in warm water.
At 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit), the temperature "is borderline" too high for a club that has "polar" in its name, said one swimmer, Josue Remoue.
They are just downstream from the setting of French artist Georges Seurat's painting "Bathers at Asniere" from 1884, a time when frolicking in the Seine was common.
"People say, 'You're crazy, you'll get spots'," said Tanguy Lhomme, who was welcoming swimmers to his barge on the recent Sunday.
"As a result, they treat the Seine like a sewer."
Lhomme admits that when he started living on the river in 2017, "it was out of the question for me to get into it".
The club's members go out with inflatable buoys and in groups, which, along with their designated lifeguards, explains why they are "tolerated", Sitbon said.
"The Seine gets a lot of bad press, like all dark-coloured rivers. The colour will never make you dream," said Louis Pelerin, another swimmer.
The Paris police did not respond to requests for comment on their attitude to swimming in the river.
"It's not the pollution but a control of morals that's at the root of it," said Benoit Hachet, a Paris sociology professor who had also dived in.
After summer rains wash dirt from paths and roads into the water, the Parisian authorities post signs banning swimming on the canal banks.
"Pollution is always a great pretext and often a great lie", said Sibylle van der Walt, a German sociologist based in Metz in eastern France, where she campaigns for wild swimming access.
"Whereas in the Nordic countries, people swim at their own risk, in France the mayor is responsible," Van der Walt said.
In the heat waves of recent summers, growing numbers of Parisians have taken to cooling off in the canals.
"More than the Olympics, it's global warming," Hachet said. "In ten years, it'll be 40 degrees. People will go in the water whether its forbidden or not!"
Sitbon also said that attitudes were changing.
"There were only a few of us in 2017. We feel we've paved the way a little."
F.Pedersen--AMWN