The Tokyo Games are always written in the future tense, with a hint of the conditional, but the sports movement will soon also have to plan for the next ones. The OCOG Paris 2024 unveiled on Monday October 5 the long list of sites selected to be Games preparation centers (CPJ). A catalog of more than 600 sports equipment, carefully classified in alphabetical order by department name, intended for national Olympic committees around the world.
The figures say a lot about the extent of the offer. THE table revealed Monday by the COJO identifies very precisely 620 sports sites throughout France. They concern 415 territories. Julien Carrard, responsible for site delivery at the COJO, assured us: the catalog covers all disciplines. “ For some, like diving, it was not easy to find equipment that meets international competition standards, he acknowledges. But no discipline is forgotten. »
The selection process was drawn out over time. First step, before July 2019: drafting specifications to apply for the CPJ title. The call for applications was then officially launched on July 15, 2019. It closed at the end of last November.
The COJO registered the applications of 768 sports venues and facilities. It has retained 620, or around 80%, all located in territories already labeled “Terre de Jeux 2024”.
Among the selection criteria, the level and quality of sports equipment come first. But the Parisian organizers also took into account the conditions of transport, accommodation and catering, or even the presence of a medical service that meets the expectations of an Olympic and Paralympic delegation.
Sophie Lorant, director of international relations for the COJO Paris 2024, explains: “ National Olympic committees are looking for high-level sports equipment as a priority. But they also want to find places where they can interact with the local population. »
In the “world before”, the catalog was supposed to be presented to the national Olympic committees on the occasion of the Tokyo 2020 Games. But the health crisis disrupted the schedule. Michaël Aloïsio, the COJO’s chief of staff, explains: “ We did not want to postpone our process by a year after the postponement of the Tokyo Games. » The catalog will be accessible to foreign countries and sports federations from January 2021.
The race for the CPJ has not yet really started, but some have moved ahead of the start. The United States announced at the beginning of March that it had concluded an agreement with the Departmental Center for Training and Sports Activities (CDFAS) of Val-d'Oise, located in the town of Eaubonne. But Sophie Lorant specifies: “ This will be their base camp, used in particular for logistics and medical purposes. Some sports will train there, but that will not prevent other American federations from looking for preparation centers located elsewhere in France. »
Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have also already taken the lead. They would be looking for a base camp where to put their trunks and display their partners before and during the 2024 Games.
The formalization by the IOC of the four additional sports (breaking, climbing, skateboarding and surfing), expected by the end of the year, will lead the OCOG to further expand its catalog. A new call for applications, specific to these four new entrants, will be launched by the organizing committee. It will be interesting to discover which municipalities will position themselves as preparation centers for the Games in the discipline of breaking, supposed to be able to compete without the slightest equipment.
