COB will have ‘Brazilian house’ in Paris 2024

A small city, with an extension of 4.3 kilometers and half an hour from the center of Paris, will be the home of Brazil in the next Olympics. Saint-Ouen, pronounced Santoân, will provide five public structures to house the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) and be a kind of refuge for Brazilian athletes not to feel homesick.

The Olympic commission from Brazil has been received in Saint-Ouen every three months so that the city can start to become Brazilian. It has worked. The report visited all the spaces that will be destined to the COB in a negotiation that started in Tokyo-2020 and cost the committee BRL 1.2 million. Brazil, in Saint-Ouen, will even have a castle available for celebrations.

And let’s start with him. The Château de Saint-Ouen is one of the few palaces that survived the Napoleonic Wars. Today, it is a classical and erudite music school. It is the stage for exhibitions and, in its basement, city security agents can have meals daily without paying anything. In the square where the castle is located, movement is almost non-existent. The students’ music is already heard at the main door, and it sounds more like a recording, it is so shielded from noise.

At the Château, the medal-winning teams will gather to celebrate. On the second floor of the building, there is a balcony with classic architecture, designed for athletes to display their medals and wave to the public that wants to participate in the celebration. The basement restaurant is already the venue for festive meetings between COB and Saint-Ouen. This Tuesday (14), the commission and representatives of the city will meet there once again, to celebrate the 500 days until Paris 2024.

On the walls of the castle, paintings tell the story of the French monarchy and the rise (and fall) of Napoleon Bonaparte. “Here begins a New Era”, says a gold painting on the living room wall. There, the letter that determined the end of the Napoleonic Era and the restitution of the Monarchy was signed. The space, however, will not remain open all the time. It can only be used for celebrations and dinners arranged between COB and the city’s Sports Department.

MEDICAL CENTER AND MEETING PLACE

In Saint-Ouen, everything is close at hand. Within a radius of two kilometers are all the future homes in Brazil – the short distance between the spaces weighed positively on COB’s choice of the region. And Saint-Ouen itself already makes the coziness possible: in the streets of the city, the cultural and religious diversity is visible in such a small space. It is made explicit on the walls of Le Petit Prince public school, where the painted hands bear the names of the authors: Laurent, Mohamed, Émie, Maya, Mohammed, Sophie. Outside, students of different colors and creeds ran back and forth, playing tag.

The Le Petit Prince school receives students from Kindergarten and what, in Brazil, would be Elementary School I. There, there will be a kind of Brazilian accommodation: typical food, for when the athletes want to eat something different from what is offered in Vila Olympic; Brazilian music and a space for the delegation to meet with family and friends who are in Paris. The school will be open, and available, every day.

The school director, who received the report exclusively, says that the older children are preparing a surprise for the Brazilian taekwondo team, which lands in French lands this month. The athletes go to the school to see the space and the students, who drew the Olympic arches on one of the walls to receive the Brazilian group.

Rooms at the Petit Prince will also house doctors from the Brazilian delegation and treatment centers: physiotherapy, quick consultations and even more intensive care involving the athletes’ health will take place at the school.

COB WORKSPACE

Another quick walk takes the reporter to Serre Wangari, a large space surrounded by community gardens that will be COB’s work base. Meetings and all the bureaucratic work behind the trip of a delegation to the Olympic Games will be held in Serre Wangari.

The site was originally used as a warehouse for materials used in vegetable gardens, which are classic in the city of Saint-Ouen. Each garden is fenced in a space of about 2 m², and this space can be rented by residents. A fee is paid monthly and residents can plant and consume whatever is grown there.

Full of greenery, Saint-Ouen takes a breath away from a metropolis – not even close to the hustle and bustle of Paris. The birds sing loudly, the sun sets in the distance and the children play in the little square in front. It’s a Friday afternoon, the square and its toys are full of children and parents. A green and flat field receives the descent of the sun at dusk. In winter, night comes early in France.

This green field has a name, Parc des Docks, and it already has a destination: a beach volleyball court will be set up on it by the Saint-Ouen city hall. No, there will be no Olympic competitions there. However, through it, the city’s Sports Secretariat intends to start generating the Olympic climate in residents. The court is expected to be set up this summer and remain open until the Games. In Paris 2024, the Brazilian beach volleyball squad will be able to train outdoors – and with fans.

PRIVATE GYM

Training will not be a problem for Brazil either. The delegation will have a gym at its disposal during the Olympics, the Gymnase des Docks, with a multi-sports court that will be used for the volleyball team; judo and wrestling rooms and locker rooms. The men’s volleyball team trained in the space last year, and, according to reports from employees, left those working in the gym awestruck.

The lack of hotel infrastructure in the city worries the municipality of Saint-Ouen. As the village is short in size, it is not yet known whether the accommodation will be enough for Brazilians who want to stay close to the Brazilian headquarters in France. Even so, negotiations for hotels and inns not to raise prices during the Games have already begun.