Antwerp (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Belgium will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics from July 26 to August 11, featuring 852 swimmers across 35 events. Notable athletes include Leon Marchand, Caeleb Dressel, and Katie Ledecky.

It has been said that the Antwerp swimming days were a big success, taking place over six Sundays and bringing in 5,000 swimmers to the city’s waterways. This event let people enjoy swimming in the Bonapartedok, showing that the city cares about providing fun activities for everyone. Each Sunday, many excited people joined in, showing that there is a strong interest in outdoor swimming and community events.

What were the highlights of the Antwerp swimming days?

The last swimming day couldn’t happen because there were blue-green algae in the Bonapartedok, which could be harmful. Even though this was disappointing, people still felt very positive about the Antwerp swimming days overall. The event was successful, with many people attending and giving great feedback.

The swimming days were a joint effort by Waterland, the city of Antwerp, and VZW Outdoor Swimming to give people more chances to swim in open water. VZW Outdoor Swimming has always wanted more spots for this, and they helped organize the events. During these days, people could swim in safe areas that were marked and watched over. The events were very popular, and the first feedback showed that people liked it. Many people in Antwerp want more places to swim in open water.

Sigrid Sprut from Outdoor Swimming said it was a big success for them, thanks to the volunteers who helped organize everything. They will do a more detailed review later, but Spruyt noticed that the booking system was hard to use and caused stress, so she thinks it’s not needed. She hopes the city will create a permanent swimming area in the Bonapartedok and also take care of other outdoor swimming spots, like the pond in Boekenbergpark in Deurne.