Between Lyon and the Games, a thwarted Olympic history

Overtaken by Mexico in the race to host the 1968 Olympic Games, the city will host 11 football matches for the 2024 edition. Hervé Renard’s Les Bleues have taken up residence in the Gerland district for the duration of the tournament.

History will remember that it was with an Iraq-Ukraine match that Lyon reconnected with the Olympic spirit. On the eve of the first group match of the French national team against Colombia, Thursday July 25, the OL stadium was the scene of the victory of the Lion Cubs of Mesopotamia (2-1) in front The stands were three-quarters empty. The turnout – despite the fervent support of the Iraqi fans who were rewarded – showed a still measured enthusiasm for the Olympic Games on site.

This lack of interest is also felt in the heart of the capital of Gaul, which is due to host 11 football matches in total, including the women’s bronze medal play-off on 9 August. “With Paris 2024, Lyon is a bit part of this adventure, but the city remains in the background in terms of symbolism”acknowledges Olympic historian Sylvain Bouchet, when discussing the refusal of the Rhône department and the Ecologist Metropolis to host the Olympic torch relay for cost reasons (Lyon will host one of the 12 Paralympic flames at the end of August).

“And yet, we keep finding links between the city and the Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin came to Lyon very frequently to meet the mayor of the time, Edouard Herriot.”continues the specialist in reference to the aborted project to organize this global event in 1920 and 1924. The only successful candidacy of the city of Lyon nevertheless dates back to the 1968 Games. On October 18, 1963, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opted for Mexico, ahead of Detroit, Lyon and Buenos Aires.

“What was missing was simply the scale of the city. Lyon proposed a deliberately simple candidacy that resembled what the IOC expected in the 1920s and 30ssays Sylvain Bouchet. Ten days before, a field hockey tournament, which was being used as a test, had also gone badly. It was a blot on the landscape: the stands were empty and some delegations found the food bad, in addition to being insufficient in quantity.” The height of irony for the world capital of gastronomy, represented in particular by chef Paul Bocuse.

In an attempt to win the prize, the municipality had nevertheless gone all out on sports facilities, under the leadership of the mayor at the time, Louis Pradel, and his deputy for Sports, Tony Bertrand. To the point of appearing more credible than Paris in the eyes of the French Olympic Committee. Cycling events at the velodrome in the Parc de la Tête d’Or, wrestling in the archaeological site of the Gallo-Roman Theatre of Fourvière, not to mention the Rhône swimming pool built especially for the occasion… Lyon had pulled out all the stops, even imagining a river shuttle service on the Rhône and the Saône to transport athletes and the public. In vain.

56 years later, the city has an opportunity to finally banish the memories of this failure and to reconcile with the Games. In the place where the 1968 Olympic village could have been held, near the Gerland stadium, Hervé Renard’s French team has taken up residence since Friday. A beautiful symbol for Eugénie Le Sommer, in the historic cradle of French women’s football.

“Playing a big competition here is great, with the two matches in Lyon [la Colombie puis la Nouvelle-Zélande le 31, après un détour par Saint-Etienne le 28 pour défier le Canada]It feels strange to be housed just a stone’s throw from home, but it’s a great reward for the city and for Olympique Lyonnais by extension.“recalls the attacker, crowned eight times in the Champions League with the club since her arrival in 2010.

Of the 22 players who make up the French group, thirteen have played or are playing for OL. Enough to push them to excel in order to win the first Olympic medal in their history? Since last weekend, the Bleues have been making numerous short trips between the “The Ruck” hotel and the Tola-Vologe training center. For several players who were in Lyon before the move to the club’s new home in 2016 (in Décines-Charpieu), the return to their old haunt is an opportunity to dust off some memories.

“As the premises belonged to the town hall, we couldn’t leave anything behind. Each time, we took our crampons and our water bottles home… Sometimes even the showers didn’t work and we had to shower at home, it was really another era.”

Eugénie Le Sommer, attacker of the Blues

to franceinfo: sport

This time, the place is dressed in its Olympic attire. “Fortunately, the French committee did a top-notch decoration at the base camp and the training center, because we don’t have the same atmosphere as in Paris where you can feel the Olympics throughout the city. In Lyon, it’s really around the stadium, where there are the Olympic rings and references to the Olympics.”added the top scorer in the history of the selection (93 goals) and OL (303) on Tuesday at a press conference.

Present in the list of 18 names concocted by the French staff, “ELS” resumed collective training on Monday and hopes to be recovered in time from a knee injury suffered in April to compete in her third Games. One thing is certain for her and her partners: “The goal is to access the Olympic village because that will mean that we play the final in Paris.” If this is the case, we will not forget that Lyon will, finally, have been the starting point of a great adventure at the Games.