Paris Olympics drama, explained: Why Parisians are vowing to ‘s**t in the Seine’ on June 23 ahead of 2024 Olympics

If the French have a national sport, it’s the art of protest. Parisians are warning tourists “not to come” to the Olympics as they take vengeance on French President Emmanuel Macron.

If protests were an Olympic sport, Parisians would hold every gold medal on record.

When President Emmanuel Macron forced his government’s pension reform through the French parliament last January, more than one million people went on strike.

Firefighters check rubbish after extinguishing a fire during a demonstration, a week after the government pushed a pensions reform through French parliament without a vote. Picture: AFP

Now, Parisians are vowing vengeance on Macron’s state-backed plan to clean up the Seine River ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

“When Macron forced the retirement reform, we made him a promise,” explained one Parisian TikTok user. “No retirement, no Olympic Games.”

“That’s why you should not come to Paris for the Olympics because we are collectively organising to make sure it’s going to be bad,” @santasolina said.

A protester holds a placard reading "France in anger".

A student shoots slogans as she demonstrates in Paris.

The hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin, which translates to ‘I s**t in the Seine on June 23’ began trending on X since Macron and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, promised to take a dip on that date to prove their embattled clean up has worked.

A website with the same name was also set up, where participants can enter the location where they are planning to defecate.

The marathon swimming, as well as the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons is set to take place in the Seine, the famous river which runs through Paris, next to famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower.

An AI generated image of French President Emmanuel Macron, swimming in the The Seine River, with the JeChieDansLaSeine hashtag. Picture: X

An AI generated image distributed by the protest group. Picture: X

Local authorities have invested more than €1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) across multiple projects to clean the water in a bid to hold swimming races in the famous river for the first time since the 1900 Paris Olympics when Australian Frederick Lane won gold medals in the 200-metre freestyle and 200m obstacle events.

French authorities have said there is no “plan B” to using the Seine for the men’s and women’s marathon swim races.

A photo of swimming athletes competing in the Olympic Games in Paris, France in 1900 in the Seine River. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

But swimming’s world governing body, World Aquatics, have vowed they will move the events to an as yet undisclosed location if the river continues to show dangerous levels of bacteria and faeces.

“Rest assured that there will be no athletes swimming if those standards are not met,” World Aquatics chief executive Brent Nowicki told The Daily Telegraph.

“We could be swimming alongside the Taj Mahal and we wouldn’t care, we want that water to be clean.

“The reputation of the sport is too risky, the reputation of health is too risky. We’ve got a lot of examples throughout the last 10 years of swimmers being contaminated in water and getting terribly sick We don’t want to have to answer to a family as to why their medallist is in the hospital three days after the event.”

Triathlon athletes dive into the Seine River with the Eiffel Tower in the background during the men's 2023 World Triathlon Olympic Games test event, on August 18, 2023. The event was cancelled due to water pollution. Picture: Bertrand Guay / AFP

Additionally, Parisians are angry that some 2,200 students are being forced out of their social housing accommodations to give firefighters, law enforcement, and civil security officials places to stay during the Games.

Le Parisien reported they were given €100 and two free Olympics event tickets in return for their displacement in July and August.

The Phryge, Paris 2024 Olympics mascot poses during a presentation to the press of the Paris on the Trocadero Parvis des Droits de l'Homme (Human Rights square) in front of the Eiffel Tower. Picture: AFP

What’s more, the workers making Olympic gold medals have been on strike since early April.

The unionised staff at the Monnaie de Paris, the French institution responsible for minting the country’s coins and official medals, are asking for a Games-specific bonus.

“Honestly, they kind of asked for it when they made the mascot the hat (Phrygian caps) people were wearing to overthrow the King in the French Revolution,” Solina continued.

“2024 edition anyone?”

“Anyway, at this point in the timeline if you’re still going to Paris during the Olympic Games it’s on you.”