(Saint-Denis) Sheets and duvets are being installed on the thousands of beds and the treadmills are ready to start: the Olympic village is completing its final arrangements before opening on July 18 to all athletes.
“It’s a place that embodies the universality of the Games,” said the head of the organizing committee Tony Estanguet, with more than 200 nations and 10,000 Olympic athletes and 5,000 Paralympic athletes. “80% of the athletes will be less than 10 km from their competition venue,” he explained during a visit organized for the press.
“This village was first designed to be a city district before being an Olympic and Paralympic village,” explained Laurent Michaud, director of the village. It will be transformed into a residential district after the Olympic Games with some 3,000 homes.
Before opening its doors, it will be “inspected by the internal security forces” from every angle, said Augustin Tran Van Chau, deputy director of the village.
From July 12, the heads of mission will be welcomed to set up their spaces and the village will open to athletes on July 18, with “between 1,500 and 2,000 athlete arrivals per day” until the opening of the Olympic Games on July 26, Laurent Michaud added.
Grocery store, training and weight room, basketball court, gyms for training, meditation room, concierge, a dozen laundromats… as well as a post office, not to mention the large restaurant and the sixty or so golf carts for getting around, the village is ready to welcome athletes.
Some athletes do not stay in the village by choice or because their competition venue is further away.
“We are receiving a lot of support from the French people who are waiting for these Games,” assured Tony Estanguet two days after the first round of the legislative elections where the extreme right and its allies won 34% of the votes.