Paris 2024 Olympic Games: the Lille Olympic Village, which will host basketball and handball, has been inaugurated

Seize rencontres des phases finales de hand (6-11 août) se dérouleront au stade Pierre-Mauroy. MAXPPP – Stéphane Mortagne

Thirty-six matches of the first round of basketball (July 27-August 4) and 16 matches of the final handball phases (August 6-11) will take place at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, a few minutes' drive from the residence, named & quot;Olympium".

Nearly 500 rooms, beds 2.20 m long: the Olympic village of Lille, which will host the basketball and handball teams during the Olympic Games, was inaugurated on Monday in Villeneuve d'Ascq (North) . Thirty-six matches of the first round of basketball (July 27-August 4) and 16 matches of the final handball phases (August 6-11) will take place at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, a few minutes' drive from the residence, named & quot;Olympium".

The project, led by the developer Adim Nord Picardie, a subsidiary of Vinci, and the co-developer Bouygues Immobilier, began in October 2022. A little over a month before the ceremony opening of the Games on July 26, all the rooms are not yet ready. In some, the mattresses are still in their covers; in others, the dust from the construction site has not yet been cleaned.

But this inauguration means that "the residence will no longer suffer from delays" and that it "there are more subjects that can disturb us", rejoiced to AFP Yannick Le Borgne, responsible for the organizing committee of the Olympic Games for holding the events in Lille.

During the Games, the French men's and women's handball teams will be hosted in the Olympic village from the quarter-finals onwards (in the event of qualification), as well as the French women's team basketball during the preliminary round, assured Damien Castelain, saying "regret" that the French men's basketball players do not do any same.

French and American basketball players absent

"They're going to regret it, because'they haven't seen the site", he smiled. The American basketball team – and its NBA stars – will not be present either. Made up of 495 rooms, from T1 to T3, for 550 beds, the Olympic village will be shared from September between a student residence and an accommodation center for athletes training in the metropolis.

Damien Castelain hopes in particular to see athletes from high-level clubs in the surrounding area settle there. A few hectometers from the residence, the Villeneuve-d'Ascq women's basketball club, reigning French champion, and the Marcq-en-Baroeul men's rugby club, which spent very close last season of the rise to 3rd division.