A year before the start of the competition, Marseille will launch a dress rehearsal around sailing.
Just over a year from the start of the 2024 Olympics, Marseille is entitled to a taste of Olympism from Sunday with the sailing test-event, an important dress rehearsal for athletes and organizers.
Decidedly, Marseille takes the lead. While it will be the gateway to the Olympic flame on French territory on May 8, the large Provençal city will also host from July 9 to 16 the first of the test events which should allow the organizers of the Games to verify their level of preparation.
Others will follow, with the triathlon in August in Paris then mountain biking in September in Elancourt (Yvelines), but it all starts on Sunday on the water and in the harbor of Marseille, soon a year from the Games (26 July-11 august). “The objective of the test-event is to train the organization teams and to test the sporting, medical, technical and technological“, summed up before the press Cédric Dufoix, manager of the Marseille and Nice sites for Paris-2024.
Even if there will be no Olympic signage or public – who will still be able to watch the show from the beaches or the ledge overlooking the sea – the event will look very similar to what will happen in a year at the same location.
Ten disciplines on the program
The Olympic base of Roucas-Blanc, in the heart of the city, will indeed welcome for eight days a little more than 1200 people, including 350 athletes representing 55 countries. They will compete in the ten disciplines of Olympic sailing: Ilca 6 (women) and 7 (men), 470 (mixed dinghy), single sculls 49er (men) and 49er FX (women), Nacra 17 (catamaran foil, mixed), IQFoil (windsurfing, men and women) and Kite-Foil (foil towed by a kite, men and women).
The safety device at sea, identical to that planned for 2024, will also be tested, with a vast perimeter prohibited to all boats from this Friday to July 16, from 08:00 to 20:00. It is on this space that the five Olympic navigation zones are drawn, three of which (the “round» Marseille, Calanques and Corniche) are very close to the coast.
Constraining, the device has caused dissatisfaction among Marseille swimmers and fishermen, even if it was established after a long consultation and that it leaves some free spaces for swimmers and kayak or paddle enthusiasts, including during competition times. “There are going to be a couple of downsides on the sidelines, but it’s going to be awesome, an amazing party. It’s a huge chance to have the Games here“, judged Guillaume Chiellino, national technical director of the French Sailing Federation.
«It’s a rehearsal for all the teams, France in the lead, who want to shine in a year. It’s a springboard to performance in 2024“, he added.
Competitive Blues
For the Blues, who are aiming for better in 2024 than the three medals brought back from Tokyo in 2021, the opportunity is a good one to show that they are competitive at home during regattas where each nation will have only one representative per discipline, who will not necessarily be the same at the Olympics. “I’m hypercurious and I can’t wait to discover the format, which will open the game“, thus declared to AFP Lauriane Nolot, ultra-efficient since the beginning of the season in kite-foil.
«The level may be lower than in our usual competitions, since we often have three French or three English women in the Top 10. So a lot of strong riders won’t be there. We will also be fewer“, she added. More experienced, Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (Ilca 7) and the duo Camille Lecointre-Jérémie Mion (470) also claim the podium, like the young duo Lou Berthomieu-Tim Mourniac in Nacra 17.
«This is my first Olympic campaign, a strange atmosphere and air, which are unfamiliar to me, Berthomieu told AFP. I have often been told + yes you are young, you will also be 2028 +, but no! I’m in the campaign, I’m competitive with Tim and I’m happy to see that we can get a medal.»
