At the end of March, the enclosure is not yet rumbling with the clamor of the thousands of supporters expected in the summer. The water of the pool, a deep blue, is not yet bubbling with the performances of the swimmers who will take over the area during the Olympic Games (JO) in Paris, from July 26 to August 11. Not a sound, or almost. Only a few workers, busy with the final finishing touches in the humidity (the water is displayed at 28°C), disturb the silence which envelops the Olympic Aquatic Center (CAO) bathed in light.
Thursday April 4, a completely different atmosphere will prevail in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), in the largest swimming pool in France: Emmanuel Macron will officially inaugurate in the morning this equipment which is one of the rare infrastructures sports cars built especially for the Games. The President of the Republic must celebrate there “the demonstrator of the swimming pool of tomorrow, more simple and less expensive for communities”.
Two days earlier, the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee (Cojop) officially received the keys from Patrick Ollier, president of the Greater Paris Metropolis (MGP)the project owner.
Cojop now has a little over three months to carry out the arrangements necessary for the Games, for an amount of 4 million euros. On the CAO square, under a tent, a temporary 50 m pool, intended for warming up athletes, is already operational. It remains to install results screens, logistical structures, a platform for judges and dressing the site in the colors of Paris 2024.
From July 27 to August 10, the CAO will welcome 5,000 spectators for the Olympic diving and artistic swimming competitions and the water polo qualifying phases. The swimming race events and the water polo final phases will take place at the Paris La Défense Arena, in Hauts-de-Seine. A choice dictated in 2020 by cost reasons. Bringing together all the aquatic disciplines in one place would have caused the budget to soar, not only for construction, but also for site management. The International Olympic Committee requires enclosures with 15,000 places for racing swimming, a pit to maintain, where the CAO gauge will vary from 3,000 to 5,000 places after the Games.
A bill of 188 million euros
A little less than three years were enough to bring the 20,000 m structure out of the ground2 designed by architects VenhoevenCS and Atelier 2/3/4. It cost 188 million euros, financed mainly by the State (82 million euros), including site decontamination work. Including around thirty million for the construction of the footbridge which connects, above the A1 motorway, the swimming pool to the Stade de France. The CAO is, of course, almost twice as expensive as that of London in 2012, but the bill is twice as high as the estimate during the application phase – inflation having inflated the final score “only” by 11 million euros.
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