The Covid-19 pandemic does not spare the world of sport.
It is the turn of the Ile-de-France Sports Expertise and Performance Resource Center (CREPS IDF) to close its doors, rue du Dr-Le-Savoureux, in Châtenay-Malabry (Hauts-de-Seine ).
This Tuesday, March 30, an extraordinary board of directors met and decided the temporary closure for a month, from this Friday, April 2, of this incubator of champions, which is the largest French training center for trades in the sport.
The situation has deteriorated sharply in recent days.
No less than 120 athletes, distributed in nine of the 17 poles of the site, who were diagnosed positive or contact cases and therefore had to isolate themselves.
Likewise, fitness training and nautical activities on the Nautile site in Pontault-Combault (Seine-et-Marne) were affected last weekend by the pandemic.
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“Everything accelerated in ten days.
It's catastrophic, laments Michel Godard, director of Creps.
For a year, we have been fighting to ensure security and maintain activity, but we have been caught up by reality.
We play the protection card at all costs, but today we have no choice.
I don't want a Creps cluster!
"
Three other sites concerned
However, the management of this establishment and the head doctor of its health center applied an extremely precise safety protocol.
The 250 “polists”, high-level athletes and the 1,350 trainees in training received throughout the year in Châtenay lived there in a sanitary bubble.
“A positive case of Covid automatically placed the entire division or the training in isolation.
Only a negative test of the people concerned ensured a return within the establishment ”, indicates the structure.
Between high-level athletes and trainees in training, Châtenay welcomes around 400 people simultaneously.
In addition to Châtenay, the Pontault-Combault branch dedicated to swimming and the Judo Institute, Porte de Châtillon, in Paris, will also close for the same reason.
The Departmental Center for Sports Training and Animation of Val-d'Oise (CDFAS), in Eaubonne, should follow.
No worry, however, for that of Vaires-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), which will continue to welcome middle and high school students.
Only Olympic athletes admitted on site
The Creps de Châtenay-Malabry will therefore only reopen on Monday 3 May.
Until then, you need an Olympic reason to come and train.
Only athletes preparing for the Olympic or Paralympic Games, which will be played in Tokyo from July 23 to September 4, will be admitted to the site.
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This exemption concerns a dozen competitors determined to snatch medals in karate, fencing and parabadminton.
The other athletes or trainees will have to work hard and will benefit from personalized distance learning.
We are far from the situation of the previous spring when the Creps opened its doors as part of the fight against the pandemic.
For six weeks from the beginning of April, he had hosted 50 homeless people with Covid.