REPORTING. “The Games started it all”… Local athletes delighted with renovations in rear bases linked to Paris 2024

At the very top of the new starting hill perched eight meters away, Quentin Berton, member of the Compiègne-Venette (Oise) BMX club office, operates and takes video of the grid which holds the bikes before the start. A foreign delegation, whose identity will not be revealed, requested these images with a view to its possible visit to the Oise to train before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. But while waiting for the arrival of foreign athletes, the new track, built with the aim of being a rear base for the Olympics, benefits local athletes.

A few kilometers away, training is also in full swing at the Compiègne archery. The last few days have been rainy and cool, the shooting range is muddy, but that doesn’t matter for these young archers who have been benefiting since October 2022 from a brand new hall which allows them to shoot even in winter. With a view to being a training center for foreign delegations, an extension of the old archery was created with a glass wall, the windows of which are opened by the archers to shoot at targets located outside. This heated room represents “a considerable asset in an uncertain period in terms of weather”according to Guillaume Humetz, coach at the Archers de Compiègne club and training center.

Before the construction of this extension, archers rarely shot outside in winter. “We had two jogging pants, three thermal t-shirts… For the joints, it was complicated,” remembers Jeanne Lemert, young archer. With the other members of the club, they had to be content with indoor training, over shorter distances, at 18 meters, while they are now starting the outdoor season earlier, with targets at 60 or 70 meters.. “For some, they are young high-level athletes, so it allows them to better prepare for the outdoor season. The idea for them is to join the France pole or the INSEP, but for that they are evaluated in outdoor shooting. This weekend, they will participate in the Vittel trophy, and they are better prepared since they have kept a link with the Olympic distances over the winter season.”explains Guillaume Humetz.

“Undeniable” progress

In Venette, the training conditions for BMX riders have also changed significantly and benefit competitors, since the inauguration of the track in April 2023. “Among young people, things evolve a little more quickly. We have some who have managed to move from the regional level to the national level. And the course between those who ride for leisure and those who ride for competition has changed: they have taken taste for competition”describe Quentin Berton and Hugues Leblanc, both former presidents of the club.

It must be said that the track has been brought up to international standards, notably with starting mounds at five and eight meters – the second being obligatory to host elite competitions – compared to a mound of three meters previously. Designed by Damien Godet, the same designer as the Paris 2024 Olympic track, it is also one of the rare tracks in France, the only one north of Paris, to have a double section on the first three straight lines, with a pro section for more experienced drivers, and another for younger drivers.

“Before we had a single split line, now we have a universal track for all levels. The fact of having a team in the national division and a training center was one of the arguments because we needed a track adapted to what they will find on an international scale”, explains Quentin Berton, at the helm of the club when the project for a new track was completed. “I progress more quickly, confirms Bastien Lansier, 16 years old, who is now playing in the pro section. The workouts are more adapted to each person’s level. The eight-meter mound changes a lot of things and allows us to take reference points that we can find elsewhere.”

“The players progress faster and the results are better, it’s undeniable”, also agrees Fabrice Morgado, player of the French blind football team and president of the Précy-sur-Oise club, which since September 2021 has benefited from two fields dedicated to the discipline, the first in France. “Before, we were used to training on pitches that were not suitable, not necessarily the dimensions. Or in ‘Five’, but there are barriers on all sides of the pitch, whereas in blind football the ball can go out in a corner. Either in gymnasiums or football fields for able-bodied people, but sometimes there were no barriers, so able-bodied people had to go get the ball if it came out.he says.

Construction mainly financed by local authorities

Even if these new infrastructures will accommodate the training of Olympic delegations, the JOP Organizing Committee did not participate financially in their construction or renovation. The development of the archery cost a total of 1.11 million euros, financed by the department of Oise, the National Sports Agency, the region and the city of Compiègne. The BMX track cost 2.7 million euros, covered by the departmental council, the region and the agglomeration of Compiègne, and the blind football fields were mainly financed by local authorities. Funding that was difficult to obtain without hosting the Olympic Games in France.

“I started the project in 2015, we had a small file but we were taken for UFOs, and when Paris was selected to host the Games, that started everything. Without the Games, I don’t know where we would be there and if we would have had such a big lead”

Quentin Berton, former president of the Compiègne BMX club

at franceinfo: sport

“There was already talk of renovation before, but the Olympics accelerated a lot of things”, also confirms Guillaume Humetz on the archery side. To justify these investments, welcoming delegations from all over the world was indeed a driving force. “It is a source of pride for every Compiégnois and our territory will benefit from this influence for tourist purposes, which we will capitalize on over time. Renovated, quality equipment that consumes little energy is, for generations to come, the assurance of being able to practice physical activity in optimal conditions but also for clubs, the possibility of evolving at the national level and international”explains Philippe Marini, mayor of Compiègne and president of the agglomeration.

World records in training

With its new track meeting international standards, the BMX club went from 150 to 200 members in one year. Since the inauguration of its new fields, the Précy-sur-Oise blind football club has opened a multi-sport school for the visually impaired. And the archers of Compiègne, who were 74 licensed in 2022 after a difficult period due to Covid and the works, have now seen their number double, “and I think we can go even further”, hopes Guillaume Humetz. These are all young athletes who will be able to rub shoulders with some of the best in their discipline when foreign delegations come to train in their infrastructures.

Indian and South Korean archers have already completed training courses in Compiègne for recent competitions, and the local club still hopes to welcome the latter, considered the best in the world. “They allow us to see them in training and it’s super interesting, because some of them are setting world records quietly, next to us. The Koreans were open, I asked them questions and they answered, we can learn more, it’s beneficial”rejoices Léa Grimault, young archer from Compiègne.

The previous blind football club hopes that welcoming delegations will further highlight its discipline: “What is essential for us is that the local supporters, the young people of Oise, it makes them dream a little to know that national teams are coming, that they are proud of it, and that they see before all athletes before seeing visually impaired people”, hopes Fabrice Morgado.