Paris 2024: Back to the Mediterranean

For the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Surfing events will be held 8000 miles away at the legendary surfing spot Teahupo’o in Tahiti. While not quite half way around the world, it’s pretty far, but that how it goes for a sport that relies on nature as its playing field.

Sailing is another sport that is rarely near the hub of Olympic events, and in 2024 the venue is 400 miles to the south in Marseille. It is a return to the Mediterranean Sea, and while Athens 2000 was held on an embayment of the Med, it hasn’t been since Barcelona 1992 when Sailing was held in the heart of this body of water.

In the scope of Olympic competitions, a sailing venue is not a complex facility, but that doesn’t stop the dollars from adding up with the project’s estimated total cost to be $46.5 million.

“It is important for us to leave a legacy for the population and territory, including better infrastructure to launch boats,” said Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet.

For the Games, Roucas-Blanc Marina, the point of departure for boats, will be adapted for staging a competition on the scale of the Olympic Games. The plans include around 7,000 sqm of buildings and the reorganization of 17,000 sqm of outdoor spaces, as well as the redevelopment of the basin itself.

However, the local authorities in Marseille have abandoned a proposal to build a 5,000-seat grandstand for the Paris 2024 Olympic sailing events, with the rejection reportedly centered on safety concerns, as the proposed stand would cover traffic lanes and that vehicles would pass underneath it.

Paris 2024 are now expected to locate a similarly sized grandstand to the beach, ensuring spectators can watch competition and traffic will be unaffected.

Source: insidethegames, Paris 2024, Scuttlebutt