Yves du Manoir, Georges Vallerey, Jacques Anquetil: several emblematic sites of the 1924 Paris Olympics have been renamed over time after the names of these legends of French sport. A century later, four months before the 2024 Games, these places of memory intend to carry their Olympic heritage loud and clear.

Along the A86, in Colombes in Hauts-de-Seine, hides a monument of French sport: the Yves-du-Manoir departmental stadium, epicenter of the last Parisian Games. This summer, the Olympic field hockey tournament will take place in the vast venue, which has had a makeover and will become the only site to host Olympic events for the second time, 100 years apart.

A former racecourse, also serving as a playground for amateur sports, the complex was designated as the beating heart and Olympic village of the 1924 Games. Tenant of the land, the Racing Club de France then proposed to “build an Olympic stadium” there. of 60,000 places by being reimbursed retrospectively from the revenues of the future Olympiad”, says the historian Michaël Delépine, who devoted a work to the Colombes stadium (“Le Bel Endormi”, published by Atlande). From the original stadium, scene of the epic duel between British sprinters Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell — immortalized in the multi-Oscar winning film “Chariots of Fire” with music by Vangelis — and the coronation in DeHart’s long jump Hubbard, the first black American athlete to win an Olympic medal, only the 6,000-seat grandstand remains. For the 2024 Olympics, it will be supplemented by temporary stands. Two floodlit synthetic field hockey pitches were also built, one with a modern 1,000-seat stand. This rehabilitation project, completed in December and inaugurated in March, cost 101 million euros, including just over 90 million financed by the department of Hauts-de-Seine, the community that owns the site.

The stadium, which bears the name of a Racing rugby player who died in 1928 at the controls of his plane, experienced glorious times after 1924: a Football World Cup final in 1938 won by Italy, 42 French Cup finals, dozens of Blues matches including a France-Brazil in 1963 with a hat-trick from Pelé, boxing matches… The advent in 1972 of the new Parc des Princes, where PSG plays, relegated in the background Yves-du-Manoir, considered too far from the center of the capital. “The Colombes stadium continued its sporting life by hosting smaller-scale events: young people, Racing teams, notably the Racing Club de France Rugby in the 1980s or Racing 92 until 2017,” explains Michaël Delépine . At the turn of the 2000s, the site was sold to the department. It is highlighted during the Paris 2012 and Paris 2024 bids. After the Olympics, Yves-du-Manoir will house the headquarters of the French Field Hockey Federation. The football and rugby fields as well as the athletics ring will be reserved for school and association audiences. “It’s extremely moving to think that this place which welcomed athletes decades ago will perhaps still welcome them for several decades,” enthuses Michaël Delépine.

The Olympic rings on the facade of the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool, Porte des Lilas in the 20th arrondissement, are a reminder of its illustrious past. It was in the lengths of this aquatic complex, then called the Tourelles swimming pool, that the American Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan on the big screen, won three Olympic titles in swimming and a bronze medal in water polo in 1924. Renamed Georges-Vallerey, in homage to a French swimmer who medaled at the London Games in 1948, the stadium housed the headquarters of the French Swimming Federation and hosted numerous national and international competitions in its 50-meter pool. In the mid-1980s, it underwent a major renovation, led by Roger Taillibert, the architect of the modern Parc des Princes. A new project, started in the summer of 2022, was initiated before the 2024 Olympic Games. On this occasion, the swimming pool will serve as a training site for swimming, open water swimming and triathlon. The work enabled the repair of the retractable roof. The frame was replaced with wood from eco-certified forests and polycarbonate panels were installed. The ventilation and filtration of the complex as well as the user reception areas (changing rooms, take-off areas) have also been modernized. “We took the opportunity to upgrade equipment that could last for the next 30-40 years without having to be rehabilitated again,” explains Nessrine Acherar, technical service manager for Parisian swimming pools. Total cost of the project: 13 million euros. The swimming pool will be accessible to the general public again in the spring, then, permanently, after the Olympics.

Before the emblematic finish of the Tour de France on the Champs Elysées, the peloton’s route ended at the Cipale velodrome (renamed Jacques-Anquetil in 1987). It is on this 500 m reinforced concrete track, nestled in the Bois de Vincennes, that the “Cannibal” Eddy Merckx celebrated, between 1969 and 1974, his five triumphs in the general classification. The construction of the site dates back to the end of the 19th century. In 1924, the Olympic track cycling events were held there where France won several medals.

Municipal enclosure, identifiable by its stands with steel beams designed by Gustave Eiffel, the Vincennes velodrome is today a temple for amateur cyclists. Every Saturday morning, from March to October, it hosts tournaments organized by the Vélo Club of Parisian Veterans. “We have a setting that has quite a past,” describes Jean Delahousse, the president of the VCVP. “We know that great champions have passed through the cabins we use, that we ride in places where there were huge races,” he continues. The VCVP counts among its members a gallery of colorful characters, such as the singer Pierre Douglas, dashing octogenarian and living memory of the Grande Boucle, or the precious stone trader and novelist Jacques David. The velodrome, whose central lawn serves as a rugby field for the Paris Université Club (PUC), was renovated from 2012 to 2015. To bring the place to life, the VCVP is trying to attract a younger audience. “If people have the courage to get up at 8:30 a.m., they’ll love it!” promises Jean Delahousse.

Several venues for the 1924 Olympic Games were demolished. This is the case of the Vélodrome d’Hiver, infamous for the roundup of July 1942 during which more than 13,000 Jews were arrested by the French police and deported. The Bergeyre stadium, near Buttes-Chaumont, where Olympic football matches were held, was also destroyed. Other places have been reorganized, such as the Pershing stadium, east of the Bois de Vincennes, which became a sports complex in the 1960s, or the Basque pelota fronton on the banks of the Seine in the 16th arrondissement, near which was built in 1988 a trinquet dedicated to the practice of this sport.