Two years and a few weeks before the opening, the organizing committee of the Paris 2024 Games continues to play with the map of sites with the manner of a general on a model of a battlefield. The game of musical chairs continues. On the table, more than half a dozen sports and disciplines concerned.
At the top of the list is basketball. Still without a fixed address for the preliminary phases since the abandonment of Hall 6 of the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center, he seems destined to take possession of the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille (27.000 seats). The first part of the Olympic tournament would swap with its handball equivalent, initially hosted in the north of France for the entire competition. Handball would occupy Hall 6 of the Parc des Expositions (7.000 spectators) in the first week.
The preliminary phases completed, the two sports would cross paths again. Basketball would head to Paris, to play the second part of the tournament in Bercy, starting with the quarter-finals. Handball would go the opposite way to settle in Lille. A standard exchange, in short. In both cases, the players would be housed in a local Olympic village, located 8 minutes from the Pierre-Mauroy stadium.
The OCOG Paris 2024 explained this on Tuesday June 21: the option of a “ exchange » between handball and basketball ticks all the boxes. Its additional cost is neutral, or at worst very low. It does not require another sport to be displaced by a domino effect that is always unwelcome at this stage of preparation. It allows handball players and basketball players to play part of their competition in Paris. Finally, it pleases the International Handball Federation.
All the boxes, therefore, except one: FIBA has not yet given the green light. “ Discussions continue, we explain to the COJO Paris 2024. They also involve the IOC, including the sports management"
The international basketball body has never hidden its wish to stay in Paris from the first to the last day. Ideally, it would see itself occupying Bercy for the entire competition, or even the Arena at Porte de la Chapelle. But the AccorHotels Arena is dedicated to gymnastics in the first week of the Games. The Arena at Porte de la Chapelle will host badminton. And it is not the intention of the OCOG to plan a move.
Officially, the OCOG has not set a date for a final decision. In any case, it will return to the IOC. But organizers hope to present a finished product at the next board meeting, scheduled for July 12.
Another file: shooting. It was supposed to occupy a site currently being developed in Seine-Saint-Denis, the Essences site in La Courneuve. But recent studies have revealed that the space available is not sufficient, unless it encroaches on a protected area, with the inevitable risks of appeal and the prospect of delay.
Unless there is an improbable turnaround, the shot will therefore leave Seine-Saint-Denis. The preferred option, but not yet final, would send him to Châteauroux, in the Indre department. It will take possession of the National Sports Shooting Center. According to the OCOG, the International Shooting Federation (ISSF) is pushing in this direction.
Seine-Saint-Denis, already deprived of racing swimming, will therefore lose a new sport. A low blow? The COJO assures the opposite. “ In the new proposed configuration, the sports project is stronger, we argue at the organizing committee. We were able to turn a constraint into a positive element"
How ? By recovering boxing. In its latest version, the site map provides for the preliminary phases of boxing in Seine-Saint-Denis. They could inherit a new site, in the town of Villepinte. For the finals, boxing would return to its original playing field, the Roland-Garros stadium, which it would share with tennis. The new Villepinte site would also be used for sitting volleyball and the initial session of the modern pentathlon, dedicated to fencing qualifications.
Another gain for Seine-Saint-Denis: the start of the Paralympic Games marathon, and that of the mass cycling event, open to the general public.
