The new swimming pools of Seine-Saint-Denis: an Olympic legacy to be built upon

But in this department located to the north of the capital, the poorest in France and devoid of a swimming culture, it will then be necessary to be able to bring to life these new pools inherited from the Paris Olympic Games which will take place from July 26 to August 11.

To the 1,6 million inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, who lack sports equipment, elected officials have assured hand on heart that a little of the money from these Games will trickle down.

A very concrete sign of the promised "material heritage": a handful of new swimming pools and renovated pools for the territory - which currently has 60 m2 of pool for 10.000 inhabitants compared to 260 m2 at the national level.

The most emblematic is the Olympic Aquatic Center located in Saint-Denis, to which are added the Marville complex in La Courneuve and the new swimming pools in Aubervilliers and Aulnay-sous-Bois.

In total, Solideo, the Olympic works delivery company, provided 15 million euros out of the 35 million for the department's swimming pool plan.

Two other temporary pools, used for the Olympic events, will be donated by the Olympic Organizing Committee (Cojo) and installed in Bagnolet and Sevran.

In this town, the pool "will replace the obsolete Caneton model swimming pool", built as part of the national program of 1.000 swimming pools launched in the 1970s after France's catastrophic results at the Mexico Olympics, explains Clémentine Lerévérend, cabinet director of the mayor of Sevran.

“A culture to write”

In Seine-Saint-Denis, the youngest department in France, one in two children does not know how to swim when they enter middle school, say the public authorities without citing a specific study. In 2023 in terms of the success rate for “knowing how to swim”, the Créteil academy thus came at the bottom of the national pack.

In her classes, Sandie Nahoum, president of the departmental committee of the French Federation of Lifeguards (FNMNS), observed that children were "sometimes afraid of water".

A 2019 survey by the National Institute of Youth and Popular Education of some 12.000 middle school students revealed that swimming proficiency was linked to the length of summer vacation, closely dependent on social origin. , and “lower among descendants of immigrants”.

In this department, home to successive waves of immigration and where a third of the population lives below the poverty line, "we must focus on learning to swim and first aid", insists Sandie Nahoum.

“For children in particular, not knowing how to swim is and remains a real cause of accidents,” note the public authorities, who have launched successive prevention plans against drowning.

"White elephant"

Framed by residential towers, new Padel and five-a-side football pitches, the new Marville swimming pool in La Courneuve will increase entries from "60.000 in the old swimming pool to 300.000", boasts the socialist president of the department Stéphane Troussel.

It will open to schools in April. And as is often the case to make such equipment profitable, it is equipped with a wellness area.

“We are moving from one of the least resourced departments to a department which will have the most 50-meter pools after the Olympics,” observes Basile Gazeaud, equipment manager at the French Swimming Federation (FFN).

But in Seine-Saint-Denis, he notes, “the network of clubs is very confidential and there remains a popular swimming culture to be written”.

Once installed, it will also be necessary to make these swimming pools last.

“How can we make these six pools 'shine' so that none becomes a white elephant” - these pharaonic constructions which disintegrate for lack of usefulness once the competition is over, asks Mr. Gazeaud.

Many municipalities in the department are penniless and this type of equipment often faces operating deficits.

“We have a Solideo (responsible for building the permanent structures) and a Cojo who communicate loudly about the heritage but who will close the shop at the end of 2024,” he continues.

In the meantime, the closure for renovation of certain pools in preparation for the Olympics has hampered learning.

Like in Montreuil, where the swimming pool has been closed for a year. “We went from five classes of 25 to a group of ten swimmers,” says Jonathan Alves, a middle school teacher in this city.