Inverting the sites of the preliminary phases of basketball and handball during the 2024 Olympic Games, by sending the first to Lille and repatriating the second to Paris, "seems the most reasonable" for the town hall of the capital.

"We wanted to keep basketball in Paris" but the use of the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in the first week "seems to us the most reasonable", indicated Pierre Rabadan, the assistant to the Olympic Games of the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo, during a visit of the Arena under construction at La Chapelle on Wednesday.

The Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center was originally supposed to host the preliminary phase of the basketball tournament – ​​the final phase being played at Bercy – but the Olympic Games organizing committee (Cojo) preferred to give it up at the end of March.

In question: the recriminations launched by one of the executives of the France team Evan Fournier against a room with “ceiling too low”.

The “cattle shed” for handball players

As the Arena de La Chapelle will host the Paris Basketball club following the Games, the town hall "had suggested the idea that it was rather good that basketball [there] come in the first week", said Rabadan.

Fournier also claimed it, but the new Arena will eventually host badminton and rhythmic and sports gymnastics.

“As we have done for several sports – in particular rugby which was at Jean-Bouin and which is at the Stade de France because there is more space, it mobilizes fewer sites so it saves money – , we are thinking on a global scale and not just in our personal interest, ”said the former Stade Français player.

The exchange with Lille will allow Paris to “recover” handball in the first week.

French handball players "are three-time Olympic champions and they don't mind playing in a 'cattle shed'", added Pierre Rabadan, ironically over criticism from NBA players.

The preliminary phase of boxing, scheduled for the Suzanne-Lenglen stadium at Roland-Garros, could also leave Paris due to technical constraints and find refuge in Seine-Saint-Denis.

"It's a possibility," acknowledged Rabadan, stressing that beyond "project adjustments", the organizers of the Olympics were trying to "stick to our project: respect environmental and budgetary commitments".

Before the 2024 Olympics, the Olympic flame will pass through Val-de-Marne

Paris

Paris: "A summer in Olympic forms", the stage festival of the 2024 Games which mixes arts and sport

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