Looking back, the scene is a bit embarrassing. A group of about fifteen journalists strut around in what remains of the pool that witnessed Léon Marchand’s exploits at the Arena de La Défense. Some of them film up close the workers unbolting metal plates from the ground.
The workers pretend to ignore our existence, but we are well aware that we are annoying them. Feeling of guilt, but childish privilege to set foot – after having climbed over some scaffolding like Ninja Warrior – where those of the Toulouse swimmer have certainly never been: he was floating three, four meters higher, but anyway, you get the idea. In our heads, we replay the film. “It was here, lane number 4, the crazy comeback of Léon Marchand in the 200m butterfly.” A projection of an amazed child.
“A parenthesis that closes and leaves a void”
Disillusioned, too, to see all that go to hell so quickly. The Arena is still far from its initial appearance, but it has already regained its blandness. The tarpaulins, the pastel-coloured kakemonos and everything that made up the visual identity of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have disappeared. “That’s what we’re removing first everywhere,” almost apologizes Edouard Donnelly, executive director of operations for Paris 2024. A final stab in the heart for the road?
The sand from the Eiffel Tower stadium has been almost completely returned. The last truck will leave the site on Thursday afternoon.
“When we see all these sites being dismantled and gradually returning to their original appearance, it is the concrete translation of this phase that is ending,” Donnelly philosophizes. “These are unique emotions. That is the principle of these major events, that’s how it is. The Olympic Games in Paris only happen once, it is historic and there will be no more. There will be other major events, other Olympic Games in France, in winter. It is a unique interlude that is closing and starting to leave a void, we see it in our teams. There is a lot of emotion.”
Swimming in the footsteps of Léon Marchand in… Sevran
All is not lost, however. Lovers of symbols will rejoice in the material legacy of these games. The sand from the Eiffel Tower stadium will be scattered across several beach volleyball courts in the La Courneuve departmental park in Seine-Saint-Denis. Even the helium from the cauldron will be recycled (yes, yes, this info is realThe La Défense basins, which had been the subject of a call for expressions of interest from towns in the 93 as provided for in the specifications, will go to Sevran and Bagnolet.
The city of Kaaris will recover the entire Olympic pool in June 2025, while Bagnolet will have to make do with half of the warm-up pool, located on the other side of the hall. 50/2 = 25m, that’s already not bad.
The remaining half of the pool will return home to Italy, although coveted by the city of Toulouse for obvious reasons (do we really need to draw you a picture?). “The discussions have remained informal” we are told in our earpiece. The compatriots of the multiple Olympic swimming champion will therefore be asked to make their pilgrimage to 2.7.0., and that’s not so bad.
Let us recall that Seine-Saint-Denis is the territory with the least number of swimming pools in proportion to its population. If Léon Marchand’s heir were to be born in this basin, the notion of heritage would take on its full meaning. And we could still say that we set foot there.