Kicker: Swimming the Seine

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: A crowd cheers on Wednesday as the mayor of Paris went for a swim in the Seine River.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo wanted to prove she trusted the water is clean enough for Olympians to swim in later this month.

MAYOR HIDALGO: [Speaking French]

The mayor explaining this is a legacy project ahead of the games to clean things up. It’s been illegal to swim in the Seine due to pollution since 1923.

But heavy rains recently, er, flushed those plans last month. That swim had to be delayed due to lingering high levels of bacteria.

Not only that, but Parisians tired of the disruption and billion euro price tag threatened to recontaminate the river in protest. I’ll spare you the details of that…

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Can you say “prophylactic antibiotics?”

BROWN: It’s The World and Everything in It.

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