VOA常速英语:布达佩斯人在湍急的多瑙河游泳

Athletes and organizers in Budapest say the water is fine in the fast-flowing Danube river. Here is the current that many people see is scary or causes them anxiety. In recent years, we noticed that we Hungarians swim very little in the Danube. The event is part of the Budapest urban games, where the city's local government encourages using the citys parks, roads and waterways as sporting venues. In past years, concerns about pollution and the Danube kept many swimmers away.

But the urban games' founder and organizer Velaz Meso says the city cleaned up the river years ago. We try to tell people every year that the Danube is clean. Since 2010 we've channeled all sewage to a cleaning plant. Plus we're far from the eddies at the foot of the bridges. Athletes swim for causes like breast cancer awareness. But former Hungarian Olympic and world champion boxer Coco Kvac swims for national pride. To swim in our beautiful river is not a big challenge, that's uh it's a great feeling, you know. I born in Budapest, I live in Budapest and I make a lot of sports activities in Budapest. And that's just a certain moment in, in our life to swim in this beautiful river and everybody have to try. About 700 swimmers swam in the European Union's longest river during the recent Budapest urban games. Organizers only allowed about 20 to 25 swimmers at a time to observe social distancing guidelines. Arash Erabasadi VOA News Washington