A week after the Olympic triathletes pioneered their way into the murky waters of Paris’s most famous body of water, two dozen of the world’s top marathon swimmers upped the ante.
Those triathletes went a mere 1,500 meters down and up the Seine, spending just 20 minutes in a river that only 24 hours before had been deemed too polluted for humans to safely enter. A week later, the marathon swimmers braved the waters for 6.2 miles, or 10,000 meters, a roughly two-hour morning dip into a waterway that had largely functioned as a massive urban sewer for 100 years.
When it was over, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands thrashed and kicked through the water to out-swim Moesha Johnson of Australia over the final 500 meters to win her second Olympic gold medal in the women’s event. Van Rouwendaal — who later dedicated her victory to her dog, who died earlier this year — finished in two hours, 3 minutes, 34.2 seconds, 5.5 seconds ahead of Johnson and 8.6 seconds ahead of Ginevra Taddeucci of Italy, who captured the bronze medal.
Van Rousendaal, who led for the first hour of the race but fell to second for most of the second half, cut into the heart of the current in the final stretch and tore through the river to the finish line. Johnson, who also competed in the…
