In an effort to combat rising costs associated with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games preparations, organizers are reportedly now considering the option of a temporary aquatic venue as opposed to the permanent structure originally included in the bid’s plans.
Paris 2024 initially proposed a new aquatic facility be built in the Saint-Denis suburb, approximately 6 miles north of the centre of Paris and close to the existing Stade de France that would serve as the Olympic Stadium. The proposed aquatic facility would host 15,000 spectators during the Games, which would be reduced to 2,500 afterwards, and have two 50m swimming pools, plus 2 additional pools for diving. Unlike the aquatic center used in Rio, this newly built site would be a permanent facility, leaving a legacy to the community and French swimming federation after hosting the Olympic swimming, synchronized swimming and diving events in 2024.
However, with costs of the permanent structure now approaching an estimated $137.5 million/€113 million (in 2024 dollars) and expected only to rise, Le Parisien is reporting that ‘it seems possible that the emergence of a temporary option’ is now on the table. Decisions will become more clear in June when venue expenditures across the entire Paris 2024 campaign will be reviewed. (Inside the Games)
Organizers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid suffered a similar close call with possibly having to switch from a newly built facility, when a cost-saving panel recommended the committee consider utilizing the existing Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center as its primary aquatic venue. Despite the Tokyo 2020 costs surpassing the estimate by over two times even as of last year, swimming will see a brand new facility in the form of the Olympic Aquatics Centre 2 years from now.
Smart idea, every facility should be like this.
The Swimswam French site confirms that is not the case and a permanent site is confirmed despite rumours…
Don’t you think that if there really was a current in a competition pool that the national governing bodies of the major swimming nations (USA, Australia, Britain, Japan, China etc..) would have done a whole lot of screaming and yelling about this? I don’t recall US Swimming doing any complaining at all. Not one word.
It would have been easy to see if there was a current just by conducting a simple test like putting a styrofoam ball in a lane and see if it moved down the pool by itself.
It sounds like some folks are making a big deal out of nothing. I doubt if anyone has solid proof that these so-called currents in the pool had any… Read more »
Why would the US scream? Their athetes won most of the medals…
If that’s the case, you would think that the Aussiies, Brits, Japs, French, Chinese and everyone else would have been
howling with protests. The Americans probably would have been howling and screaming louder than anyone. We love to complain.
It’s much to do about nothing.
Have you ever seen USA Swimming publicly complain about anything? Especially when the problem involves a pool builder that is a huge sponsor of theirs?
No, but if you or I or anyone else was coaching a swimmer who trained very hard in an attempt to make the Olympic team or get on the podium at a major elite level meet and was beaten out by a swimmer who was in a “moving water” lane, there would be a lot of very loud protesting. I’d be madder than a wet cat.
When anyone can provide this message board with quantitative proof that this has actually happened, please speak up. Make sure to provide the names of the swimmer and the coach who was affected and the name of the meet. Until then, I think it is a bunch of nonsense.
And one more thing……… Read more »
Paris is a city of 8 million..the main city of a large, rich Western nation with a strong tradition in swimming. Why doesn’t it have a World Class Aquatic Centre already? $137 million is about the same as one big military tank.
I find it weird ‘world cities’ that don’t have a decent swimming centre…it should be a given.
London didn’t either before the 2012 Olympics.
Paris has plenty of 50m pools of a very high standard, but, being in the centre of a densely populated city, they don’t have space to add on big stands required for the Olympics (hence building the new one out at Saint Denis).
Practically, these global cities don’t always work for more regular swimming meets, so unless there’s an Olympics or World Champs, they’re not the most sensible place to build the best pools. Most big UK meets are still held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield because travel to and hotels in London are just so much more expensive and it’s a big burden to put on the parents of the mainly… Read more »
It happens when a city is build through the centuries and not in the last 50 years…
Some of the temporary pools have currents, which can affect the results.
As long as the pool is fast and fair, that’s the main thing.
Out of curiosity, name one pool that was used for a major competition where it was proven that there were currents and these currents affected the results.
Let us know.
http://www.indiana.edu/~ccss/files/Documents/2014%20-%20Cornett,%20Brammer,%20Stager%20-%20Bias%20at%202013%20World%20Swimming%20Championships.pdf
Rio
2013 Barcelona and 2016 Rio.
http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2015/11/an-unfair-pool-at-the-2013-fina-swimming-world-championships/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/01/these-charts-clearly-show-how-some-olympic-swimmers-may-have-gotten-an-unfair-advantage/
Olympics and World Championships should not use temporary pools.
Awful.
This exhibits why the IOC needs to commit to a circuit if qualified cities to rotate the games. LA, London, Beijing, Sydney…fill in maybe 3-4 more. And that’s it. The hit-and-run deals to auction the Ganes off every time for money era needs to close out for the IOC.
Since 2020, ’24, and ’28, are already awarded, the earliest this could happen would be 2032. Start the rotation with Sydney, then go to Beijing, London, LA…, we’re talking about Olympics out to 2044. That’s a long time out…
Sydney would have to retrofit all of their venues, since those have all been down-sized for long-term occupancy. Same thing with probably all of those places.
I agree with you, though. A rotation, get the IOC to chip in/completely fund venue and infrastructure updates, and we’re set. Maybe even settle on Athens, permanently.
For the cost of renovating all those cities and venues, or mucking through the corruption in Athens, maybe a PERMANENT new site could be built. Maybe at… Read more »
In Greece? Are you nuts? There are so many other sites that are much more stable and financially sound. BTW, I don’t have a problem with temporary pools, the US used them for all the last four Olympic trials in Omaha and Long Beach.
They worked out quite well.
Ask any Olympic Trials swimmer from the recent few cycles & the constant feedback I hear is Omaha is terrific, unique & exciting as a venue overall. The temp pools; however, get almost exclusively negative reviews.
bait and switch
weak