The swimming pool of Colombes closed its doors this Friday evening to the public and will do so this Saturday evening for the swimming club, which organizes its annual party.
They will not reopen before June 2024. The equipment will undergo a total facelift.
It must have changed its face for the 2024 Paris Olympics, when it will become a training center for synchronized swimming teams.
At that time, almost nothing will remain of the structure built in the late 1960s by architect Henry Pottier.
Today, the Colombes Olympic swimming pool, nestled on Marante Island, is above all synonymous with damage, leaks, breakdowns and repeated “exceptional closures”.
A total renovation and an extension were therefore essential to play in the court of Olympism.
Doves, April 22.
Even today, you have to climb a staircase to access the pools and changing rooms.
The work also aims to make the swimming pool accessible to the disabled.
Eventually, the new aquatic center will have been equipped with a Nordic pool (outdoor and heated), weight rooms, a club house, meeting rooms and fun facilities for families such as a new paddling pool, slides , etc.
A playground with water jets and pentagliss should complete the system.
The small pool will also now be accessible to people with reduced mobility, thanks to a gently sloping access.
These were left over from the old swimming pool, whose changing rooms were… upstairs.
“The site will meet the specifications of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games: the 50-meter pool will be brought up to new standards.
It will be coated with a stainless steel process, in accordance with the standard of the International Swimming Federation and a guarantee of performance for the discipline, it is indicated in the town hall.
According to the wishes of the Olympic facilities delivery company (Solideo) and the city, the new swimming pool will be exemplary in environmental terms.
Its design will in fact make as much use as possible of ecological materials, biosourced and from short supply chains, as well as low-carbon concrete.
The municipal sports department will settle there
“A page is turning but we are going to write a new one”, announces Fatoumata Sow, deputy mayor for sports and the Olympics.
Once the Olympic and Paralympic Games are over, the center will be officially handed over to the city.
The municipality wants to make it its headquarters for sport and not only for aquatic disciplines.
“We are going to set up our sports department there, which is currently based in the city center”, continues the elected official.
This project necessarily has a cost: 28.8 million euros, including 24.5 for the city, 2.3 for Solideo and 2 million for the Metropolis of Greater Paris.
“We worked with neighboring towns to find slots for schools and clubs for two years,” adds Fatoumata Sow.
From the start of the spring holidays, on May 9, nine classes of CM1 considered to be a priority will be welcomed in Bois-Colombes.
This municipality has released 400 hours of slots in the swimming pool for Colombes students over the 2022-2023 school year.
Read alsoParis 2024: the Olympics flag is already flying over Colombes
“For the children, who were the furthest behind in learning to swim, we have put in place a special system with 130 additional hours since last summer, before the swimming pool closed, recalls the elected official.
It's more complicated to find solutions for the clubs and the public… ”The city nevertheless ensures that it continues to finance the “competition groups” of its clubs, will reimburse individuals with a subscription of 12 entries and ask neighboring municipalities to apply their local rates for swimmers coming from Colombes.
The works are supposed to be completed in June 2024. The new equipment will be immediately handed over to Paris 2024 for the Olympic and then Paralympic Games, which will be held from July 26 to September 8.
The public and the local clubs will then be able to appropriate it.