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Paris is hosting the Olympics this July and August
Paris readying for the big show Veda Dante checks on the preparations for this year’s Paris Olympics, in particular the aquatic venue and how the organisers plan to aid the population’s swimming capabilities once the international crowds have gone home. By Veda Dante
“The aquatics centre was envisioned as a refreshing antidote to the trend for self-consciously ‘iconic’ Olympic venues.”
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unique aquatic complex is being unveiled in France, thanks to this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games – arguably two of the greatest world events that will bring together more than 200 delegations and nearly 15,000 athletes. Located in Saint-Denis, Paris’ second most populated suburb, the Olympic Aquatics Centre is scheduled to open in April 2024, where it will host test events for diving, artistic swimming, and water polo prior to the Games’ official opening ceremony on July 26. The brand-new facility is the only piece of sports infrastructure built to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games and then be preserved as a heritage item in the Paris region. In fact, 95 per cent of the sites dedicated to the Games are existing or will be temporary. Following the Olympics, the goal is to establish two national centres for diving and swimming. “The facility will serve as the venue for the 2026 European Championships, a competition that has not been hosted in France since 1987,” says
February/March 2024
Laurent Ciubini, general director of the French Swimming Federation (FFN). “The intention is to also establish an annual World Cup for swimming and artistic swimming, ensuring the legacy of this infrastructure.”
Paris 2024 Olympic Aquatics Centre
Global architectural firm, MVRDV, says its proposal for the aquatics centre was envisioned as a refreshing antidote to the trend for selfconsciously “iconic” Olympic venues, which it says subsequently become expensive, oversized burdens upon their cities. MVRDV say their design, by contrast, takes as its starting point the needs of the area, improving connections between neighbouring locations and creating a vertical park and “green lung” within the city while assimilating itself into its surroundings. Separated from the Stade de France by a highway on its eastern boundary, the centre’s location is not lacking in iconic structures. However, it was in desperate need of improved pedestrian connections, green space and