On Sunday, over 250 swimmers dove into the Chicago River for its first open water swim in almost a century.

The Chicago River Swim’s triumphant return this past weekend celebrated the city’s environmental progress and raised $150,000 for ALS research at Northwestern’s Ozdinler Lab and swim-safety education programs at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, according to a recent Chicago River Swim statement .

“Swimming in the Chicago River may sound like a wild idea, but the river has come a long way from its industrial past,” claimed the Chicago River Swim website.

Yeah, right , you’re probably thinking. That’s what they said about Paris’ Seine River during the 2024 Olympics, and yet a number of athletes got sick after swimming in it .

In the last decades, however, Chicago has made signi

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