“If the Olympic Games take place on the hill of Elancourt, it is a little thanks to our club, savors Thierry Fabre, president of the local Vélo club. We have created the paths, the paths, the passages for the races there … “He is also the founder of La Revancharde, the competition which is held each year on the slopes which will host, on July 28 and 29, 2024, the mountain bike events. But, beyond that, the work in progress on this 52-hectare site also aims to transform it into a sports and landscape park.
Formerly exploited as a stone and sand quarry, the site stands on a layer of waste and rubble from the construction of the new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. While nature had taken back its rights on the hill, the project first attracted the wrath of elected ecologists and the collective Les amis de La Revanche, formed in 2014 to oppose the installation… of a ski resort. “It had become a fairly balanced hill in terms of fauna and flora, and we are going to put a big blow to it”, lamented one of its members, Claude Stassinet, in The world in November 2022.
The site will be much cleaner and enhanced from the point of view of biodiversity
“As soon as we received the project management of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, we began exhaustive ecological inventories, underlines on the contrary Vivien Corre, public space project manager at the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo), and we also carried out work in particular to decontaminate the soil. On arrival, the site will be much cleaner and valued from the point of view of biodiversity, “he says.
Since January 2023, development operations have begun. The 4-kilometre Olympic track, which follows 95% of the existing layouts, must be ready for the test event which will take place on September 23 and 24. After the Olympics, a final phase of work will take place until April 2025, when the site will reopen to the public. Other mountain bike trails, pedestrian paths, relaxation areas and lanes for BMX, skate, scooter or rollerblade enthusiasts will then be created.
The management of the hill not yet stopped
“This park is on our land, but we do not know by whom and how it will be managed”, wonders Thierry Fabre. In fact, the urban community of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines has not yet decided on the terms of management of the site dear to the Friends of La Revanche. Although the association has disappeared, two former members, Claude Stassinet and Tristan Péribois, have joined the site monitoring committee. A way to keep a watchful eye on the hill, and its revisited nature.
Yves-du-Manoir, the “Clairefontaine” of hockey
After the Olympics, the stadium intends to become what the National Football Institute is for football.
It is a form of rebirth. A century after being the main Olympic site in 1924, the Yves-du-Manoir de Colombes stadium is undergoing a transformation to host the Paris 2024 field hockey competition. “Beyond the Games, we want to make it the Clairefontaine of this sport”, comments Olivier Bilon, Olympic and Paralympic Games project manager within the Hauts-de-Seine department, owner of the premises.
At the end of the works – worth 94.2 million euros – and the event, the site will host a hockey center in one of its new buildings, including the Federation, the Ile-de-France League, the departmental committee, as well as a resident club. The discipline, which will benefit from two dedicated pitches and a stand, will not, however, be alone in its home. A second building will be reserved for football and rugby, which have four and three fields respectively.
“By switching to synthetic and lighted lawns, we will be able to increase the time slots and thus exceed the 7,000 users per week that we had before the works”, rejoices Olivier Bilon. Enough to consider the future of the puck with optimism.
An article from the special file of L’Express “The new territories of the Olympic Games”