A (Covert) Pre-Olympics Dip in the E. Coli-Infested Seine

With a showman’s flair, Stratte-McClure ripped off his trunks, revealing a multicolored Speedo (a moule-bite, literally “dick molder,” in highly impolite French) and well-toned biceps (he is a member of U.S. Masters Swimming, and sometimes competes). Days earlier, water-quality researchers had detected more than ten times the acceptable level of E. coli bacteria in the Seine. (Olympics organizers have expressed confidence that the water will be safe by the start of the Games.) Stratte-McClure was not deterred. He scrambled down a set of stairs, snapped on goggles, and pushed off into the river, freestyling toward the Pont Saint-Louis at a steady clip.