The Claude Fichot stadium in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, the Cosec Pablo Neruda in Les Mureaux, the Didier Simond international nautical stadium in Mantes-la-Jolie, the Grigore Obreja sports plain in Buchelay, the Marcel Cerdan sports complex and the Léo Lagrange stadium in Poissy. All these sports infrastructures are present in the catalog of preparation centers for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. It is available online at the address prepare.paris2024.org/fr and aims to enable sports delegations to come and train in the host country of the next Olympic Games. While the Seine valley clubs contacted are delighted to see the infrastructures in which they train retained in the catalogue, several nevertheless express doubts as to the possibility of attracting teams.
This is particularly the case of Stéphane Bregeon, coach at the Olympic judo club 78 Buchelay Mantes, who nevertheless says he is particularly “proud” to see the Grigore Obreja sports plain chosen for judo as a preparation center. “The infrastructure is magnificent […] and the facilities are outstanding […]. What Buchelay lacks, for judo, is perhaps a locker room with a sauna. Judo is a combat sport and a sport of weight and athletes need, after training, to do relaxation and weight loss. The sauna is not essential but it could be a plus”, he says, also deploring the lack of accommodation nearby.
The lack of accommodation is also an observation made by Frédéric Andolfi, president of the rowing section of the Mantaise Sports Association (ASM). The Didier Simond international nautical stadium where the club trains is included in the catalog for this discipline. On the assets of this place, the website of the Olympic Games preparation centers indicates that “the pool benefits from exposure to the wind in the axis and from a regular depth over its entire width allowing comfortable practice and fair play. between each water line.
“It’s a great tool because it’s rather sheltered as a pond […]. I have always enjoyed rowing on it,” says Claire Bové, an ASM member and silver medalist in rowing at the Tokyo Olympics which took place in 2021. While the catalog specifies that the Didier Simond international nautical stadium benefits also a “space for storing boats, offices, a specific training room equipped with ergometers, changing rooms and a rowing tank (fixed equipment consisting of a boat installed in a water, Editor’s note)”, Claire Bové affirms that the infrastructures would benefit from being modernized.
“To practice rowing, it is an infrastructure that is perfectly adapted and the pool is recognized by practitioners and competitors as an extremely reliable pool that is totally suitable for them for the practice of competition. […]. For the infrastructures, they need to be modernized because a nautical stadium ages and deteriorates over time so there is necessarily rehabilitation work on the nautical stadium to be done, ”adds Frédéric Andolfi who fears that the infrastructures will be a brake. when the teams arrive. He nevertheless specifies that the club has already hosted, on two occasions, representatives of the Chinese delegation to visit the site. To help modernize infrastructure, the Department has announced that it will invest “10 million euros” (see box).
“Carrying out an internship at a Games preparation center is a unique opportunity to benefit from training places that comply with the technical specificities of your discipline, but above all it means benefiting from privileged contact with the host country. “, retorts Tony Estanguet, triple Olympic champion in single-seater canoe slalom and president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, on the website of the catalog of preparation centers.
The assistant in charge of sports at Les Mureaux, Damien Vignier, confirms that the infrastructures must meet demanding conditions. “The facilities have to be up to standard. There are quite substantial specifications, ”he explains, specifying that the Cosec muriautin Pablo Neruda, is selected for breakdance, boxing, handball but also for boccia at the Paralympic Games. With the Oxygen Factory center with a capacity of 220 rooms, the elected official hopes that selections will be present. For this, he has already shown the sports infrastructure and accommodation at the embassies of Zimbabwe, Gambia, Senegal and Japan. “It’s a bit of lobbying,” admits Damien Vignier.
Most of the clubs contacted hope in any case that they will be able to exchange with the selections who have come to train in the infrastructures. “We could look at the training methods […]. This could lead to something interesting, ”imagines Gilles Jaladon, sports director of the Poissy judo club. The Marcel Cerdan sports complex serving as the club’s training ground can accommodate a preparation center for judo, handball, rugby sevens, road cycling and basketball. In this last discipline, Stéphane Lecordier, president of the Poissy club, also hopes to be able to have exchanges with the basketball selections.
While the Conflannais Claude Fichot stadium is selected for athletics, that of Léo Lagrange, in Poissy, is listed for football and triathlon. ” [Il s’agit du] place of regular training for the Poissy triathlon with Andréa Lewis, Olivier Marceau, Cassandre Beaugrand and Jessica Harrison”, declares the press release presenting this latest sports infrastructure. As La Gazette en Yvelines reported in September 2021, Cassandre Beaugrand won a bronze medal in the relay at the Tokyo Olympics with Léonie Périault, Dorian Coninx and Vincent Luis.
“I never really asked myself the question [si la présence d’un sportif de haut niveau pouvait influencer la venue des délégations pour venir s’entraîner] but I imagine that, in the reflection of a person, if an athlete medalist in the Olympic Games trains in a place it is that this place must be a good place to train. That can be a plus”, confides Claire Bové who hopes that her silver medal at the last Olympic Games will be an asset in attracting teams to Mantes-la-Jolie.
The deadline for the choice of preparation centers is not known. “For the moment, the delegations are prospecting,” says Damien Vignier. What they want is to be able to start doing preparatory courses for the Games from 2023. “
Ten million euros to “modernize” the preparation centers
During its meeting on April 22, the Department of Yvelines adopted the “Olympic influence of Yvelines” system for a period from May 1, 2022 to April 29, 2023. In the amount of 10 million euros of investment, this device “will be the first stone of an Olympic Games strategy whose target mainly concerns communities that own Games preparation centers and sports federations present on our territory wishing to modernize their sports equipment”, underlines Olivier de La Faire, adviser departmental of the canton of Versailles-1.
The objective pursued by the Department is also the creation of annexes “promoting the influence [des équipements] but also [leur] positioning in the national sports landscape”, while creating “a post-Olympic legacy to host national and international events and to allow the greatest number of people to benefit from our major sports facilities”, continues the departmental adviser.
Les Mureaux bets on the Paralympic Games
Already chosen as a rear base to welcome the Paralympic athletes of boccia, a sport similar to petanque and curling, the City of Les Mureaux intends to be attractive for the international delegations of the 2024 Paralympic Games.
It also plans to create, at the Cosec, a center for the reception and training of para-archery. “Beyond the Games, today we have a lot of clubs that cannot accommodate licensees with disabilities because the places are not adapted”, details the municipal will, the sports assistant, Damien Vignier. For this, major accessibility work should be carried out both on the Muriautin launch pad but also inside the equipment for an estimated budget of 79,086 euros.
This must make it possible to rework the path of the launch pad, its lighting, its shelter as well as the accessibility of the changing rooms inside the Cosec itself. To perfect these arrangements before the arrival of the archers, the City can count on the expertise of its local club, the company of Arc des Mureaux, which has in its ranks a double French champion (2019,2021) of para- archery, 50 and 70 meters. “A grant application has been submitted to the National Sports Agency as part of the accessibility system for structuring sports equipment for 52,724 euros”, specifies Damien Vignier.
