For these home Olympics, the National Sports Agency (ANS) – under the leadership of Claude Onesta, director of high performance – had the idea of creating a place dedicated to performance. The “Maison France”, secure (screening and security gate) and exclusively intended for athletes and coaches, will be installed at the Marcel-Cachin high school, in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). To access it, the athletes, who will stay in the village, will only have a few hundred meters to travel. Also at their disposal is the Alice-Milliat gymnasium, located in L’Ile-Saint-Denis, which will allow handball and women’s basketball teams to train there.
“The idea is to place French athletes in the best possible conditions,” underlines Yann Cucherat, in charge of the Maison de la Performance project. During the Games, any trip takes on significant proportions, we need to save as much time as possible. The organizing committee offers training slots to all delegations, but we cannot choose them. Thanks to this tool, the French will be autonomous. Above all, they will stay as long as they wish. »
If the concept of a House dedicated to performance has already existed, notably for the English at the London Games, the project has never been taken this far. The high school, almost adjacent to the village, offers a unique opportunity, with a substantial surface area of 9,000 m2. The House was designed by the ANS, but in exchange with the Federations, in order to meet their needs, and the French Olympic committee, so that the services offered are complementary to those of the village.
“Welcome additional doctors, physiotherapists and specialists”
Athletes and staff accredited to the village will be able to enter. The Federations may provide additional lists. “The objective is to get around the fact that not everyone can return to the village and therefore to accommodate additional doctors, physiotherapists and specialists, but also personal coaches and training partners. »
Yann Cucherat compares this house to “a locker room”, “this place where we stay in our bubble, where we can say things to each other because we are with family and where we go to find the final adjustments. » A “final preparation” site designed around athletes and reserved for those “who know everything that is at stake in the last days, in the last hours. »
Areas will thus be dedicated to recovery, with cold baths and saunas, a physiotherapy and stretching room. Nearby, the high school CDI will be transformed into a vast medical space.
Judo, shooting, fencing, breaking, basketball, weightlifting…
The sports venues will respond to the wishes of the Federations who have asked to train there permanently. A room for judo in the first week, then for taekwondo and wrestling, the second week; a boxing ring, three equipped fencing rings and an armory area; a secure archery area; two weightlifting stands; a laser shooting zone for the pentathlon; a room for breaking; a 3 x 3 basketball court installed in the high school courtyard.
Added to this, 4 shared spaces, including a 100 m2 cardio room, equipped with bikes, treadmills and rowing machines and one for weight training. 21 rooms will be made available to the Federations who will be able to carry out briefings and video analyses. A room, with a giant screen which will broadcast the events, will allow athletes to take a break.
If two partners – the FDJ and Coca Cola – support the system, the project, whose budget amounts to 4.5 million euros, was mainly financed by the State. All equipment will be left as an inheritance. Sports equipment (tatami mats, boxing ring, fencing ring, etc.) and recovery equipment (sauna, cold baths) will be allocated to sports federations. Medical equipment and strength training equipment will be distributed throughout the territory between the CNOSF, public establishments (CREPS), equivalent public organizations and national schools.