Not sure that this is enough to comfort Léon Marchand but the announcement has the merit of existing. The Minister of Sports Gil Avérous announced Friday that the State will finance to the tune of 4.4 million euros the Swimming City project in Toulouse, where the Dauphins du TOEC club of quadruple Olympic champion Léon Marchand will play.
This information takes on a particular flavor the day after the sting sent by the star of the pools to the government. Léon Marchand hastened this Thursday to denounce on his social networks the abandonment of the project to generalize two hours of sport per week in college, in addition to PE classes. A decision poorly aligned with the great national cause of 2024 which was the promotion of physical and sporting activity, in the momentum of the Olympic Games.
A “PPP” costed at 33 million euros
“I came (…) to provide the support of the State for the project carried out by the club, with the support of local authorities, to say that the State would be present to the tune of 4.4 million euros in this operation to promote this innovative project,” the Minister of Sports told the press about the new aquatic center.
In this major public-private project costing 33 million euros, the Toulouse swimming club will also inherit part of the warm-up pool at the Nanterre Arena, where the swimmers trained before participating in the competition events. Paris Olympic Games. This infrastructure from the Olympics will cost between 2 and 2.5 million euros, according to the town hall.
This new Swimming City, “unique in France”, according to the general director of the TOEC Dauphins, will allow the historic Toulouse team to leave its aging facilities, located in the south of the Pink City, very close to the Stadium, Toulouse Football Club stadium. The club is counting on work to begin in the first half of 2025 and an inauguration in September 2027.