Macron hails 'great human chain' behind new Olympic Aquatics Centre

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday paid tribute to the vast array of engineers, landscapers and politicians who worked on the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, which will be used during the Paris Olympic Games.

The 180 million-euro centre – a stone's throw from the Stade de France in Saint-Denis – will host water polo, diving and synchronised swimming competitions between 26 July and 11 August.

In the month after, it will be used as a training facility for the Paralympics swimming events.

During the formal inauguration ceremony, Macron said: "There is a great human chain that has made it possible to build this centre. The elected representatives and local authorities who are funding it alongside the government and all the government departments who have monitored the project.

"And I'd like to congratulate our architects, the contractors and the thousands of journeymen who worked on it.

"It's exemplary from an environmental point of view, in terms of construction and operation, and it's exemplary from a social point of view, precisely because of the ability to integrate and promote social integration.

"And you've done it on time and on budget." 

Countdown to Games

Flanked by regional leaders as well as Olympics organising committee boss Tony Estanguet, Macron was taken on a tour of the building where he met its interior designers, outfitters and architects. He was also shown models of the site and the surrounding landscape.

"In around 120 days or so we'll have the Olympic Games," he told around 1,000 people congregated in the stands around the main pool. "But after that this centre will be yours.

"That's how we wanted it and that's how we planned it."

In the years before the bid was lodged to host the Olympics, politicians of the 1.6 million people in the Seine Saint-Denis department just outside Paris had lobbied for a pool to aid an area where statistics revealed that 60 percent of the 11-year-olds in the region were unable to swim.

"And that's one of the challenges we face," added Macron. "Because we want to see more and more people learning to swim at school, collège, lycée and outside school.

"We will train our future champions here in these pools and we will be able to have other sports here.

"You can be proud of what you have around here," Macron added. "To the youngest here, this is yours."

The Aquatics Centre will be able to host spectators around the pool in stands which can be configured for between 2,500 and 5,000 people.

Outside, a footbridge over the A1 motorway connects the complex with the Stade de France, which will be the venue for the athletic events during the Olympics.

Solar farm

On an environmental level, a 5,000 square metre roof covered with photovoltaic panels, will make it one of France's largest urban solar farms and supply all the energy that the centre needs.

Paris organisers have said they want the Olympic Games to finish by using half the carbon emissions of London in 2012 and Rio four years later.

Paris 2024 executives initially set a target equivalent to 1.58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. But that ambition has been lowered to around 1.75 million tonnes to allow for the visitors flying from abroad to the events around France.

Organisers promised to use either existing or temporary sites for 95 percent of the sports events.

Apart from the Aquatics Centre, the athletes village in Saint-Denis and the La Chapelle Arena have been the only venues constructed from scratch.