Macron Inaugurates Paris 2024 Aquatics Centre

Little more than 100 days before the start of the Paris 2024 Games, French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Olympic Aquatics Centre, which was delivered a month ahead of schedule.

The sports center will host the synchronized swimming, diving and water polo events, but will not be used for the inline swimming events.

Alongside the Arena Porte de la Chapelle, the Olympic Aquatics Centre (OAC) is one of the new facilities built especially for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.

Located in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the city of Saint-Denis, the venue will host the artistic swimming and diving events, as well as the preliminary phase of water polo.

The OAC was officially inaugurated in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024.

"It is with great emotion that we receive the keys to the Olympic Aquatics Centre. We're very proud to see this magnificent facility delivered by the Greater Paris Metropolis, and what's more, a month ahead of schedule!" said Estanguet.

French President Macron was proud to inaugurate a venue that will have a long-lasting legacy, not only for athletes but also the general public.

“We want to welcome the world, our athletes to win a lot of medals and it to be an incredible moment of French pride," he said. "But we also want these structures to remain, as with the Olympic and Paralympic Village. For us, this is one of the big elements of heritage."

This is the largest piece of sports infrastructure to be built by the organizers, who boast that 95% of it was already in place when Paris was awarded the 2024 Games.

Macron claimed that the building was an example of France "delivering infrastructure on time and on budget" despite the Covidien crisis, the war in Ukraine and inflation, and invited comparisons with "budget overruns" at previous Olympic Games.