High divers plunge into the Seine in Paris at European Aquatics Championships
High divers launched from a 20-metre platform into the Seine in Paris on Friday as part of the European Aquatics Championships. Training had been suspended on Thursday after traces of hydrocarbons were detected upstream, but the French Swimming Federation said the affected area had been treated by Friday and athletes returned to the water, allowing the competition to proceed.
Paris is staging its first high-diving competition in the Seine on a platform erected on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, an element of the city's effort to reclaim the river for swimming and sport. The event has also exposed the fragility of that ambition: swimming in the Seine was officially banned in 1923 and public swimming returned only in 2025 after Paris and its partners mobilised €1.4bn to make the river swimmable.
Organisers suspended training on Thursday when traces of hydrocarbons were detected upstream and by Friday the French Swimming Federation reported the affected area had been treated, which permitted athletes to resume activities and the contest to continue as planned. The interruption was confined to training ahead of competition rounds rather than the medal sessions themselves.
Hundreds of people gathered along the riverbanks on Friday to watch the divers, with some stopping during lunch breaks and others encountering the event by chance. Rebecca Kapogiannis, a 45-year-old visitor from London, Ontario, was in Paris with her daughter to celebrate graduation and said, "We just headed down to the [Eiffel] Tower today and thought we would walk along the Seine and stumbled upon this and thought it was a really cool activity to watch." She added, "I was not expecting a competition to take place in the Seine, but I think it’s such a cool use of this water that runs right through the city." Cynthia Matz, visiting with her husband, Sean, said the public setting drew her in: "Anybody can go. I don’t have to know anything about diving. I can just say: ‘This is really cool to see,'" Matz said. "Having it out in public, people will just stop and go, ‘huh, what’s going on?’ and stop and spend some time and enjoy it."
Maxime Sauvage, the Paris deputy mayor in charge of sports, acknowledged the limits of outdoor events and pointed to the work done to improve river safety. "There are things that are within our control, and there are uncertainties that are inevitably linked to any outdoor activity," he said. He also noted the city's preparations, saying that among the things within the city's control are "the massive investments made before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games to make the river safe for swimming, from work to prevent sewage from flowing directly into the Seine to improvements in stormwater management." "There is always a small risk, but that is also part of what makes outdoor events special," he added. "When they work, it is magical."
The Seine is hosting both the open-water swimming and high-diving competitions at the 38th European Aquatics Championships, which mark the centenary of the inaugural championships held in Budapest in 1926 and return to Paris for the first time since 1931. More than 1,000 athletes are competing across five disciplines — swimming, diving, artistic swimming, open-water swimming and high diving — placing the river back at the centre of a major international event two years after the Paris Games.
High diving concludes on Saturday with the final two rounds and the medal events, while the broader European Aquatics Championships run through to 16 August.