Could the Cuyahoga River ever host an open swim like Chicago just did?

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Chicago River made news recently for something it hadn’t done in nearly 100 years – host an open water swim .

Nearly 300 people braved the cold water to take part in a race in a river that was once considered an open sewer.

The dramatic gathering, which took more than a decade to arrange, came a little more than a year after last year’s Summer Olympics in Paris, when triathletes and marathon swimmers took to the Seine River during their competitions.

So, if swimming is safe in the once-fouled waterways of Chicago and Paris, how close might Cleveland be to hosting something similar on the Cuyahoga?

Not close at all, say those familiar with the river and its history, but that doesn’t mean the urban section near Downtown Cleveland couldn’t host a gaggle of churni