A year after the Olympics in Paris, French and foreign tourists will be able to swim in the Seine as the work is in the final phase of one historical cleaning of the river following a hundred years of ban on swimming in its dirty waters.

Mayor Ann Hidalgo released the three spots on the Seine, which will be open for public swimming from summer 2025. They are located in the center of Paris near the ÃŽle Saint-Louis and on the eastern and western edges of the city.

Banned for a century because of dirty watersswimming in the city is set to be one of the most important legacies of the Games thanks to a €1.4 billion regeneration project.

Not only three Olympic and Paralympic eventstriathlon, marathon swim and para-triathlon, are scheduled to take place on the Seine in central Paris, but by 2025 three outdoor swimming areas will be accessible from the waterfront.

“When people see athletes swimming in the Seine without health problems, they will start returning to the river”, predicts Pierre Rabandan, deputy mayor of Paris, responsible for the Olympic Games. “It is our contribution to the future.”

Like many Western cities, Paris saw the quality of its rivers being drastically destroyed by industrial effluents and the sanitary demands of a growing population.