Paris 2024: "Asking for medals from people who aren’t given a swimming pool is cheeky"… The hassle of tricolor diving to prepare for the Games
It’s like “put Lewis Hamilton in a kart or a Clio on a Formula 1 circuit and hope he wins“. Benjamin Auffret, fourth at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, thus describes the situation of French divers, at the dawn of the Paris Olympics. Even retired from the platforms, even accustomed to the difficulties of his discipline in France, he does not It was not the end of its surprises for its ex-fellows in their quest towards Paris 2024. The Blues experienced a preparation between permanent system D, and hopes of success from July 27.
The epic begins at the end of January 2023. This is only the beginning of preparation for the Games, then a fairly distant horizon, 18 months later. But getting started quickly becomes a struggle. The Montreuil swimming pool, historic bastion of the 10-meter diving team, must undergo work in view of the Olympic meeting. Initially scheduled for June 2023, they must start earlier and disrupt the calendars. If Insep (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Platform) has 3 meter springboards, there is no alternative in the Paris region for 10 meter divers. Future Olympians are then “without fixed diving boards”.
“We took the opportunity of the Olympics to obtain funding“, admitted to of Parisian [article payant] Anne-Marie Heugas, vice-president in charge of sports at Est Ensemble, the community to which the city of Seine-Saint Denis belongs. The renovation is advanced but the deadline for completion of construction remains unchanged for Montreuil, selected to host water polo and training for qualified teams. Even if it means sacrificing those of the French diving team.
“We’ve had a pretty tough yearsays Emily Hallifax, qualified in synchronized diving at 10 meters. We had to do a lot of traveling, we went to Germany, we did numerous internships to find a swimming pool.” Return trips during the day to Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg, one of the only French basins with such a high platform, trips to London… The management of the Blues had to find plans B in a hurry, and without tomorrows. Almost enough to make you miss the old Maurice-Thorez Nautical Stadium in Montreuil.
“We have no choice, we go to a public swimming pool, it’s the only high-level pole where there are 10 meterssummarizes Benjamin Auffret, always close to French divers. And they close the swimming pool to them one year before the Games. Whoever made this decision, it’s not a good idea. First of all, to go diving in France, you have to be a little masochistic… It’s not easy. We need silence and there are all the school children around who are learning to swim, who are impressed and who start screaming. There is no video system, no mat, no trampoline, not all heights, the platform is not wide enough to do synchronization, so out of the four Olympic disciplines, there is one that cannot work. It’s already really complicated.“
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