Sports historian Michaël Delépine finds this amusing. Examining the material published to promote the venues hosting Olympic events, he observes that no image praises the Colombes stadium. No postcards, no posters – as if the Hauts-de-Seine site did not deserve to be highlighted. A surprising disdain when one considers that it has the unique privilege of hosting the Olympic Games for a second time. The first was in 1924, when the opening ceremony, athletics competitions, road cycling (start and finish), horse riding, football, gymnastics, the modern pentathlon cross-country and rugby were held there. A whirlwind of events that put the city, located 8 kilometers from the capital, to the test; The promised metro facilities not having seen the light of day, it was necessary to fall back on the railways and hastily build a “railway stop” – there was no longer time to build a station.
One hundred years later, in a few days, the Colombes stadium, officially named the Yves-du-Manoir stadium, after a polytechnician international rugby player who died in a plane crash, will host the field hockey events, not without having benefited from 101 million euros of work, 90 of which were paid by the Department, its owner. With its two new buildings and three hockey fields, the stadium will become, from the fall, the national headquarters of the French Hockey Federation. A resurrection, this spectacular, if discreet, return. The “eternal forgotten”, as Michaël Delépine, author of a book devoted to its history, calls it (The Sleeping Beauty, published by Atlande), has indeed seriously come close to dying. Abandoned because it was too ugly, too distant, too popular, condemned to the bad fate of an installation that was too small for major meetings and too large to ensure its financial balance.
When the IOC awarded the 2024 Summer Games to Paris in 2017, it was dying. Nestled between the A86 motorway and tower blocks, it was falling into disrepair. A rickety athletics track, wide bends closed to the public – too dangerous -, a shabby façade, an obsolete car park, faded blue stands, an old rusty metal frame. The Department, which had bought it ten years earlier, had certainly financed a few band-aids, such as this temporary grandstand installed in 2014, but the patch was not enough. It was being eyed by developers eager to transform its 21 hectares into a shopping centre or hotel complex, projects that the municipality, keen to rehabilitate the northern loop of the Seine, did not view with a negative eye.
Lack of chic
Without the magic wand of the Games, the place that was, for a long time, the mythical setting of French sport would perhaps have disappeared. Its history begins in 1883, when, on these banks of the Seine, a modest racecourse was built, nothing very big, just a weighing pavilion and a wooden side stand. Inaugurating what would be its curse, it already suffered from a lack of chic; “it does not have the aura of its Parisian counterparts”, explains Michaël Delépine. Compared to the elegant greenery of Longchamp, Vincennes or Saint-Cloud, the site suffers from its industrial landscape, a gray suburban aesthetic. 1906, no more horses. The newspaper The morning, then the fourth Parisian daily, with a circulation of over 600,000 copies, took over the lease and built an athletic stadium there. Its facilities attracted the Racing Club de France, already one of the largest sports companies of the time. The club had set up its headquarters in the Bois de Boulogne, at Croix-Catelan, but it was in Colombes that it organised football and rugby matches.
When the 1924 Games were looming, the French Olympic Committee presented its candidacy, taking care not to count on Colombes, which it did not consider elegant enough to be able to claim the five rings. Pushing itself by the collar, it promised on the other hand to build in Vaugirard, in place of old brickyards, a brand new and monumental stadium. A few months of euphoria followed, during which architects’ drawings sketched splendid constructions with 100,000 seats followed, then reality set in. The City of Paris had no money, the State hardly more, the promised subsidies evaporated. Nothing would be built in Vaugirard, and the IOC was impatient to see Paris without a major stadium. The Racing Club then took over the file, and promised to adapt Colombes to the canons of the Olympics. Banco. Regulation lawn with eight lanes, changing rooms, showers, loudspeakers, scoreboards, wooden stands. All this costs a fortune. The swimming pool is not finished, the ambitions are reduced (25,000 seats and covered), but year after year the stadium is ready on time.
It is fun to watch the rich documentary, directed by Marie-Laurence Rincé, 1924. Paris at the Olympic Games (Public Sénat) to realize to what extent our annoyances have nothing to envy the grumbling of the Parisians of 1924. In front of half a million spectators, 44 nations compete (neither Germany nor the USSR), but, unfortunately, the summer is scorching, and the visitors grumble at having to take the train to get to this out-of-the-way stadium, especially since the price of the ticket has exploded, going from 1.70 to 5 francs. Fewer people than expected make the trip, tennis fans are scandalized to see their gentlemen’s sport practiced in an industrial setting, they complain about the fumes from the factories – the Games over, we promise to forget Colombes for good and to build the famous 100,000-seat stadium as soon as possible.
“The big stadium while waiting for the big stadium”
“For fifty years, it will be the big stadium while waiting for the big stadium,” smiles the historian. Intended to be temporary, it will last while waiting for the construction of a place that is constantly postponed.” From 1925 to 1939, the Yves-du-Manoir stadium hosted the 1938 Football World Cup, most of the French Cup finals, most of the major rugby matches, and the European Athletics Championships. The stadium was decorated until the declaration of war in September 1939. The sports facility, like Roland-Garros, was chosen as a “gathering center for undesirables,” where “nationals of enemy territories aged 17 to 50” were locked up, mostly Austrians and Germans, among whom were many Jewish families who had fled Eastern Europe. “Neither an internment camp nor a concentration camp, the stadium is a transit area. An episode that was long hidden, until the installation of a memorial plaque in 2012,” adds Michaël Delépine.
After the Second World War, the stadium suffered a lot of destruction, and its image deteriorated. When Emil Zapotek achieved his world record there in 1954, barely 5,000 spectators applauded him in the stands. Now referred to by the pejorative “old stadium”, attendance was down, it was dying, abandoned. “However, the place, even decrepit, remained an incredible meeting place, here the middle and high school students from Colombes coming to play sports could meet international footballers, famous rugby players, it was a very open, mixed, rare site. The triumph of simplicity and modesty, the refusal of unnecessary luxury. A somewhat gray stadium in the Parisian suburbs that could occasionally be adorned with bright clothes”, remembers its specialist.
The 2024 Games are back in full swing thanks to field hockey, the event that came in fourth place in terms of audience, thanks to the loyal spectators from Southeast Asia and Northern Europe. The stadium’s history, brought back to life, can be explored, free of charge, until October 19, at the city’s art and history museum, which is hosting the exhibition “Colombes, land of champions 1924, 2024”.
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