At the end of July, a last metal arm is still rotating above the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games village, north of the capital, to finish assembling a gymnasium on the roof of a building. THE countless cranes – there were about 40 of them at the height of the activity – who swept the sky of Seine-Saint-Denis to build in less than six years the piece of city which must, initially, house the 15,000 athletes of the competition and their companions were dismantled one by one. The last must be on Saturday July 29. One year from the opening ceremony, the construction and development of the sites that contribute to the smooth running of the event are entering their final stretch.
The finishing phase is already well advanced in the streets of the Olympic village, which extends between Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis and Ile-Saint-Denis, but also within the grounds of the Olympic aquatic center, in Saint-Denis, and the new Arena, Porte de la Chapelle. In Dugny, in the district built to the south of this neighboring town of Le Bourget to house technicians and journalists, all the buildings have risen from the ground.
The finishing stage is not the most spectacular, but not the easiest either. In the athletes’ village alone, 2,000 journeymen, electricians, plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, painters, landscapers take turns to finish on time – there were 3,500 in the spring.
The calendar is the obsession of the team of the Olympic facilities delivery company (Solideo), responsible for orchestrating all these projects. At the beginning of July, it was “69 months and 21 days”a little over five and a half years, the countdown had started. All they had left was “5 months and 26 days” before handing over the keys to the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop), in due time, that is to say at the end of 2023.
big scares
“Deadlines are tight, but kept”, keeps repeating Nicolas Ferrand, the general manager of Solideo, who admits having experienced great fears. Three years ago, the Covid-19 epidemic brought the world to a halt and blocked the global supply chain. In the spring of 2022, Russia declared war on Ukraine. The materials began to run out, including the steel frame of the future Arena. Prices have soared. A month ago, it was the urban riots after the death of Nahel M., this 17-year-old young man killed by a police officer, which gave him a new “heat stroke”.
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