Far from the Atlantic Ocean and the waves. With the coastal towns of Biarritz and Lacanau as competitors, Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) is entering the competition to host the surfing event at the 2024 Olympics. The event should take place in the pool.
Biarritz, allied with three Landes municipalities (Capbreton-Hossegor-Seignosse), and Lacanau (Gironde) have already submitted an application to host the sliding sport invited at the end of February by Paris 2024 to give a facelift to the Olympic institution, to the sides of rock climbing, skateboarding and breakdancing.
In their application letter, local elected officials believe that “La vague Grand Paris”, an infrastructure which should see the light of day in 2023 in this popular city in the Parisian suburbs, perfectly meets the criteria for Olympic equipment (reception, training, entertainment).
Make Sevran “a place of destination”
Within an “eco-designed” district, “ten minutes from Charles-de-Gaulle airport”, the project provides various facilities dedicated to board sports and “young and urban” practices (climbing, breakdance) . Its flagship equipment: an open-air surf pool that can generate 1,000 waves per hour and accommodate 100 surfers simultaneously.
This equipment “will participate in the dissemination of the wealth generated and the values conveyed by this planetary event for the benefit of the inhabitants of the east of Seine-Saint-Denis”, the youngest and poorest department of metropolitan France, plead Stéphane Blanchet, mayor of Sevran (without label), and Bruno Beschizza, president LR of the public territorial establishment Paris Terres d’Envol.
With this project, the mayor also says he aspires “to get out of a fatal pattern and no longer suffer what we experienced in the 1950s to 1970s with uncontrolled urban development” and wish to make Sevran ” a place of destination”.
The Sevran wave has an “economic and sporting” interest
Asked in a local publication shortly before the announcement of Paris 2024 to include surfing in the competition, the president of the French Surfing Federation, Jean-Luc Arassus, considered that the artificial surf wave of Sevran represented “an interest to both economic and sporting.
“The artificial wave must come as close as possible to natural conditions while preserving the uncertainty of waves in the natural environment”, he warned, however, stressing that the artificial wave “allows the holding and broadcasting of events independently of the vagaries of the weather unlike natural waves”.
Jean-Luc Arassus also recalled that the Île-de-France region is the one with the most surfers in France, and that “there are strong possibilities of finding within this population, the future World Champion “.