The stadium that was the principle website for the 1924 Paris Olympics is prepared, a century later, to welcome a whole lot of individuals and tens of hundreds of spectators for subsequent yr’s Summer Olympic Games within the French capital. The Yves-du-Manoir stadium, within the northwestern Paris suburb of Colombes, turned on Monday the primary sporting venue to be formally handed over by builders to native authorities forward of the Games. It will host the competitions in discipline hockey, a sport which is probably not the primary exercise in France however has an enormous following in northern Europe and Asia, specifically India.

The stadium was specifically renovated for the 1924 Paris Games, when it hosted the opening ceremony, athletics and different sports activities starting from equestrian to gymnastics.

During these Games it was the scene of the epic dash races involving British athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, famously portrayed within the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire”.

According to the organisers, will probably be the one 2024 Olympic venue to be internet hosting the Games for a second time.

It additionally hosted the 1938 World Cup soccer last, the place Italy beat Hungary, and had its capability expanded to 60,000 after the tip of World War II.

But the opening of the Parc des Princes stadium in 1972 within the west of Paris signalled its decline and three of the 4 stands had been demolished on the finish of final century.

‘New future’

It now stands in a location that belies the stadium’s legendary standing, squeezed between 15-storey buildings and a motorway.

Its choice to host the sphere hockey occasions in 2024 has given the stadium a brand new lease of life.

Two years of labor enabled the historic stand, with a capability of 6,000 seats, to be introduced as much as commonplace and a brand new stand of 1,000 seats to be constructed in addition to coaching pitches for hockey and different sports activities.~CHECK~

Temporary stands to be put in between February and April will deliver the whole capability to 13,500 seats, stated Edouard Donnelly, head of operations at Olympics organising committee COJO.

The complete price of the work amounted to 101 million euros ($110 million) — 87.4 million financed by the native authorities and the remaining 13.6 million from Solideo, the general public institution liable for delivering the Olympic constructing works.

On Monday, development group Leon Grosse, which carried out the renovations, symbolically handed over the keys to the brand new advanced to its proprietor, France’s Hauts-de-Seine division.~CHECK~

Marc Guillaume, the highest state-appointed official for the Paris area, stated the handover was simply the primary of a number of.

There can be “many other ceremonies of this nature in the coming weeks”, he stated.

The stadium is called after French rugby participant Yves du Manor, who died in a aircraft crash in 1928, aged 23.

“The Olympics were an opportunity to completely renovate this stadium,” stated the top of the Hauts-de Seine division, Georges Siffredi.

It will host the lads’s and girls’s Olympic hockey tournaments between July 27 and August 9.

Some 300,000 spectators are anticipated to attend over the fortnight of competitors, stated COJO head Donnelly.

Other services will likely be declared prepared in the course of the first months of 2024.

The Arena Porte de la Chapelle, which is able to host badminton occasions, is to be handed over in January, the Olympic village in February and the aquatics centre on the finish of March.

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