In the midst of an imbroglio, Tony Estanguet ensures that basketball will be played well in Lille for the 2024 Olympic Games. The president of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojo), Tony Estanguet assured that basketball “will be played in Lille in 2024”. “We still have a certain amount of work to do together with the international federations, with local players, to make these two great moments great successes,” added Tony Estanguet to the press during a visit to the Pierre- Mauroy, located in Villeneuve-d’Ascq (Nord), the arena of the Lille football club.
“Everything is not yet resolved but we are very confident in our ability to answer all questions in the coming months,” he added, alongside Fiba Secretary General Andreas Zagklis. The group stages of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments for the 2024 Olympics must take place in Pierre-Mauroy, before the knockout stages in Bercy. Some Blues players were saddened by this relocated choice because it was too far from an Olympic village to live “in the heart of the Games”.
Ongoing discussions
But several subjects, linked in particular to the air conditioning of the stadium in basketball configuration, had sparked discussions within Fiba, which in December gave “subject to reservations” the green light to the organization of the group stages in Lille. “We want to come here provided that these issues are resolved,” said Andreas Zagklis, who said he was “confident”. “Paris 2024 has made a lot of progress in recent months and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.
Asked about the semantic difference between his “confidence” and the certainties displayed by Tony Estanguet, he assured: “I don’t think we are saying different things, we are exactly on the same line”. On the ticket office for the 2024 Olympics as well as on the official Games website, it is stipulated that the group stages will take place in Lille.
The knockout stages of handball tournaments must also take place in this venue, after group stages at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris. A subject that does not raise the same questions as in basketball.