2023-11-18 21:17:51
The dream becomes reality. Combs-la-Ville is now a games preparation center (CPJ) for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. And not in just any discipline. Mayor Guy Geoffroy signed an agreement this Saturday with the Australian gymnastics team.
From July 13 to 26, outside of supervision, a dozen gymnasts, mostly female, will train at the Salvador-Allende sports complex renovated and expanded for this purpose. A strong symbolism for Combs whose team of gymnasts performs in the top 12, the high French level of the discipline.
“We have the legitimacy to welcome a team for the Olympics! I know that those of Paris 2024 will be a real popular success. What makes a nation is the human adventure! », enthuses the elected LR.
A room that had not been renovated since 1998
This Saturday also marked the inauguration of the renovated Salvador-Allende complex. “Our gym had last undergone work in 1998 and was aging. Everything has been refurbished…”, jubilant Jean-Yves Callon, coach of the Combs gym club from 1980 to 2017, and who became a president very invested in this objective of the Olympics.
Incidentally, the site also has new changing rooms, a weight room, two treatment rooms, new lighting (LED) and a reception pit that meets standards. “Only twelve gymnastics teams qualified for the Olympics, there were around 1,200 municipalities with the Terre de Jeux label and they chose us! », adds the manager.
Combs-la-Ville, November 18, 2023. With his wife Corinne, Jean-Yves Callon, president of the Combs gymnastics club and coach from 1980 to 2017, is happy to receive the delegation of Australian gymnasts in July 2024 in the renovated premises and expansion of the Salvador Allende sports complex.
Jackie and Jessica, coaches who came from Australia this weekend for the 27th Combs international tournament, did not hide their joy: “It’s beautiful! We are grateful” (“it’s beautiful, we are grateful!” In 2024, they and their athletes will stay at the Kyriad hotel in the town of 22,000 inhabitants which “is pulling out all the stops for the occasion” , according to Guy Geoffroy.
On Saturday, the formalization of this partnership took place in the presence of Edwige Avice. The former minister of sports, now honorary president of the French Sports Foundation, was already there during the inauguration of the sports complex in 1983.
Combs-la-Ville, November 18, 2023. In the center, the two young gymnasts from the Australian team Audrey and Maylee, surrounded by their coaches Jessica (left) and Jackie (right), are delighted that their team is coming back train in July 2024 in Combs in the renovated Allende gymnasium just before the Paris Olympics.
The bill for this beautiful renovation amounts to 2.316 million euros? It is distributed, almost equally, between the town of Combs (602,451 euros), Greater Paris Sud (578,826 euros), the department of Seine-et-Marne (500,000 euros) and the State (468,000 euros) . The Ile-de-France Region paid 167,605 euros. A “collective effort” praised by Mayor Guy Geoffroy.
“The departmental council wanted to be at the heart of the Games with more than 8 million euros for our fourteen CPJs,” explains Bouchra Fenzar-Rizki, vice-president in charge of sports at the Department. The Théâtre de Sénart located in Lieusaint has the ambition to welcome break-dancing teams. But nothing has been decided yet.
Combs-la-Ville, November 18, 2023. Surrounded by regional advisors Philippe Bouriachi and Laure-Agnès Mollard-Cadix, the vice-president of the region in charge of sports Patrick Karam criticized the lack of resources provided by the State for equipment in France.
The vice-president of the region is very critical…
Vice-president in charge of sports in the Region, Patrick Karam did not mince his words. “We want to make France a sporting country, but we don’t finance the equipment,” thundered Valérie Pécresse’s right arm. The forgetting of sport by the State is a mistake because sport generates educational values… Behind each piece of equipment, there are educators and we train many of them. Since 2016, the Region has financed 2,270 pieces of equipment, giving 100 euros to each Ile-de-France resident aged 15-17 to pay for their sports license… The national sports agency (ANS) is completely off the mark because it only finances neighborhoods in urban policy (QPV) or in devitalized rural areas. »
Regarding the Paris 2024 Games, Patrick Karam recalls that “the Region is the 2nd largest financier with 450 million euros, behind the State and ahead of the city of Paris. But for the Olympic base of Vaires-sur-Marne, which will host the canoe-kayak and rowing events, the Region has put in 100 million euros and the State only 11…”
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