100 years after the 1924 Games, the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool is back in its Olympic costume

Despite the metal barriers that delimit the work area, the site cars parked in a row and the imposing prefabricated building located in front of the entrance to the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool, one thing does not go unnoticed. The Olympic rings sit enthroned on the facade of the building, proof of the very special nature of the infrastructure. Built for the 1924 Olympic Games, the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool, located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, will be, along with the Yves-du-Manoir stadium for field hockey, one of the two sites from this era reused for Games of 2024.

Tarzan’s pool

A hundred years ago, this swimming pool was the scene of several sporting exploits, including those of the American Johnny Weissmuller, triple Olympic gold medalist in the 100 meters, 400 meters and 4 × 200 meters freestyle relay. The latter will later embody Tarzan in the cinema and will make the cry of the legendary jungle man. The first “Olympic swimming pool” with a pool of 50 meters, it was also a pioneer in 1924 by streaking the rectangle with water lines.

A strong place in history which will not host the swimming races again in 2024 – the stands being too small – but which will however be used as a training site, before being left as a legacy to the Parisians.

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Inside, each room or corridor is under construction, with the exception of the changing rooms. Auxiliary lights have been installed, illuminating the still rough floors and walls, black pipes come out of the ground and from the ceiling or sometimes even from the trenches, and around fifty workers are busy to complete the work on time, either by the end of January 2024. Upstairs, once you have passed the sanitary facilities and the footbath, the Olympic swimming pool is revealed, devoid of its roof since January, revealing the greyish sky of Paris and engulfing the winter cold .

The roof covering represents the largest part of the project, entrusted to AIA Architectes for the project management, and piloted by Romain Viault, from the firm Architecte(s). “The retractable roof, which allows it to be opened in the summer, was only added at the end of the 1980s to optimize its use, explains Flavie Anet, assistant to the head of the piloting and expertise division of the equipment department, in the youth and sports department of the city, who put on her yellow vest, helmet and construction shoes for the visit. The original larch will be replaced by Douglas fir from eco-certified forests in the Vosges and Jura, and the cover will be made of polycarbonate, a light, insulating and translucent material. The new framework will be laid at the end of March.” This renovation, costing a total of 12.5 million euros, is financed by the City of Paris and Solideo, up to 50% each.

A heritage swimming pool

The investment is obviously part of the Olympic project, but also part of a broader objective of legacies to Parisians. In order to respond to this desire to inherit the Games, a strong project of the Paris 2024 bid, several other developments are currently underway: improving accessibility, in particular with the creation of a kennel available to visually impaired users, renovation of the ventilation system to improve air quality and modernization of lighting to reduce the site’s energy consumption by 40%.

“Through this renovation project, there is also a very strong environmental and social ambition”, raises Flavie Anet. Behind this intention, the city of Paris undertakes to “reuse or recycle 90% of the waste produced (iron, rubble, etc.) through specific channels” and reuse “10% by mass of deconstructed and deposited elements” during the works.

To meet this objective, the wood from the old framework will be recycled to make furniture and signage that will be installed in the renovated swimming pool. Another part, the equivalent of 6 m³ of wood, was donated by the city of Paris to the Extramuros association, a solidarity carpentry, which reuses materials. Finally, to satisfy the social aspect, “nearly 10,000 hours of insertion are planned” for people encountering difficulties of socio-professional integration, further notes the city of Paris.

If the end of the work is scheduled for the end of 2023, the Parisians will still have to wait before being able to chain the lengths at Georges-Vallerey. Its restart for individuals will take place after the Paris Olympic Games, in March 2025, at the same price as before its closure in the summer of 2022.