Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a swim in the Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to demonstrate the river’s cleanliness ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, just nine days away.

Wearing a wetsuit and goggles, Hidalgo entered the river near City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral, alongside Tony Estanguet, head of Paris 2024, Marc Guillaume, the top government official for the Paris region, and swimmers from local clubs.

“The Seine is exquisite,” Hidalgo remarked from the water. Upon emerging, she continued, “The water is very, very good. A little cool, but not so bad.” She also declared the day “a dream” and a “testimony that we have achieved a lot of work,” referring to the city’s “swimming plan” launched in 2015.

They swam approximately 100 meters, alternating between crawl and breaststroke.

“After twenty years of doing sports in the river, I find it admirable that we are trying to clean it up,” said Estanguet, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in canoeing.

The swim is part of a larger effort to highlight the river’s improved cleanliness ahead of the Summer Games, which begin on July 26 with an open-air ceremony featuring an athletes’ parade on boats on the Seine. Daily water quality tests in early June revealed unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, but recent results have shown improvement.

Swimming in the Seine has been prohibited for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. This plan included constructing a giant underground facility, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.

Originally scheduled for June, Hidalgo’s swim was postponed due to snap parliamentary elections in France. On the initial date, the hashtag “jechiedanslaSeine” (“I’m pooping in the Seine”) trended on social media as some threatened to protest the Olympics by defecating upstream.

Hidalgo, however, proceeded with the swim on Wednesday, carefully entering the river using a ladder on an artificial pond set up for the event. Seven security boats were deployed for the occasion.

Curious spectators crowded the upper banks.

“I wouldn’t have missed that for anything in the world,” said Lucie Coquereau, who woke up early to get the best view of Hidalgo’s swim from the Pont de Sully bridge overlooking the site.

Enzo Gallet, a competitive swimmer who has participated in France’s national open-water championship, was among the athletes invited to test the Seine alongside the Paris mayor.

The 23-year-old swam just a few meters from Hidalgo. “Her crawl form was pretty good,” he said, emerging from the water. “It’s pretty special to be among those who swam in the middle of Paris for the first time in a long, long time.”

After the officials departed the Seine river banks, numerous swimmers remained in the water, some playing catch with a ball, others practicing dives from the artificial pond — all in a festive mood.

Other politicians have made promises to clean up the Seine. Jacques Chirac, the former French president, made a similar pledge in 1988 when he was Paris mayor, but it was never fulfilled.

Hidalgo followed in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who swam in the Seine on Saturday wearing a full-body suit.

Concerns over the Seine’s flow and pollution levels have persisted, prompting daily water quality tests by the monitoring group Eau de Paris. Results in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements.

The Seine will host several open water swimming events during the Games, including marathon swimming and the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.