Paris 2024 Olympic Games: more than 1,500 athletes will come to prepare in the Occitanie region before the Games

L'équipe de France de judo viendra à nouveau se préparer au Creps de Montpellier. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

La Région a investi depuis 2016 plus de 130 millions d'euros pour rénover et compléter ses installations sportives. Un effort capital pour espérer faire de l'Occitanie une "terre de Jeux".

167 days before the opening of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the Occitanie Region intends to occupy the field. Kamel Chibli, vice-president in charge of Youth Sports and Education, recalled that the Regional Council supports 800 high-level athletes, many of whom hope to qualify for the Olympics, with an annual budget of 500,000 €.

"Since 2018, we have supported 5,000 athletes and 4,000 clubs and we are the leading region in terms of sports practice with 3.85 million participants."

10% of Olympic and Paralympic athletes will prepare here

The elected official wanted to go further and take advantage of the organization of the Games in France to make Occitanie "an open-air gymnasium". The mission is practically accomplished since the 76 sites labeled Games Preparation Centers (CPJ) will welcome more than 1,500 Olympic athletes from 47 countries spread over 184 courses by July 26, the date of ;nbsp; the opening ceremony in Paris.

The French delegation is obviously the one which will use the Occitan facilities the most (45 courses), followed by Spain (9 courses), South Africa (8), Brazil, Japan and Australia (7 internships), Ukraine and Slovenia (6 internships).

Australian swimmers in Canet-en-Roussillon

The three Creps of Montpellier, Font-Romeu and Toulouse are obviously the sites which will host the most courses, in particular the entire French judo team in Montpellier. But other sites will welcome prestigious athletes such as the Canet-en-Roussillon basin for Australian swimmers and the French water polo team.

25000 nights for tourism

"These courses will represent 25,000 nights and will also have repercussions in terms of image" welcomes Vincent Garrel, president of the Occitanie Regional Tourism and Leisure Committee.

Also read: Olympic Games: Occitanie wants to be the preparation base for Paris-2024 athletes

Since 2016, the Occitanie Region has allocated a budget of 130 M€ to finance projects in its territories intended to offer athletes optimal preparation and training conditions. This work involved the creation or renovation of sports equipment in all territories. "Today we are reaping the fruits", congratulates Kamel Chibli. 

Places at the Olympics for 1000 young people from the Region

Among the other operations underway in our territory, in partnership with the Regional Olympic and Sports Committee (CROS), the Region offers high schools in each department to organize with their teaching teams a half- day of awareness of Olympic values ​​in the presence of high-level athletes. 24 meetings have already taken place out of a total of 40 interventions scheduled for the school year.

The Region will also carry out operations in Paris itself during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in particular by offering a thousand places to young people from Occitanie who will be chosen in remote territories, priority districts of the city, or within clubs that have been rewarded in terms of fair play.

"We are also in discussions with the CNOSF to have a space, for example at the France club, to bring our athletes there and put forward our regional economy", concludes Kamel Chibli.