Paris 2024 unveils its test program

Less than 500 days from the event, preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is accelerating. As of this summer, the Paris 2024 organizing committee is starting its test program on several of the sites that will host Olympic and Paralympic competitions.

Tests to be ready on D-Day

Without being an early replica of the Games, these tests are intended to enable Paris 2024 and all the players associated with the organization to be ready for the summer of 2024, when the whole world will have eyes fixed on France. They will thus make it possible to identify and operate the potential necessary adjustments, to ensure an optimal operational delivery of the event.

These test activities will be organized during the twelve months preceding the Games, until June 2024 with, in particular, on this date an operational test for athletics and para-athletics at the Stade de France. The first test event, led by Paris 2024, will be held this summer from July 9 to 16 in Marseille, on the Marina site, which will host a major international sailing competition on this occasion.

The Paris 2024 test program has been carefully developed according to the specificities of each sport and the various Olympic and Paralympic competition venues, in close collaboration with the International Federations concerned. Sports and sites that already benefit from established know-how will thus be tested in an operational manner only. This is for example the case of the Roland-Garros stadium, which relies on unanimously recognized expertise in the organization of international tennis competitions. In this specific case, the transition between the change of sports – Tennis/Boxing – on the Philippe-Chatrier court will be tested more particularly.

This program has also been built in an optimized way. Thus, certain events of the 2023/2024 international sports calendar, organized on Games competition sites, have been integrated into the test program, thus allowing Paris 2024 not to multiply the commissioning of sites. This will be the case for the Junior World Rowing Championship which will take place on the water surface of the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium from August 2 to 6, 2023, organized by the French Rowing Federation. Paris 2024 will test its operations related to the competition area there, in particular an anti-wave line and timing.

Paris 2024 stakeholders have been associated with the test program to anticipate situations similar, or equivalent, to those of the Games. For example, the center of Paris will simultaneously host this summer, from August 19 to 20, a stage of the Archery World Cup and an international Triathlon and Para Triathlon competition, offering a brief but intense rehearsal of what will take place a year later on these sites. On the menu of these tests: installation and dismantling of the floating starting pontoon and other complex structures, testing of the cycling and running routes for the Triathlon and Para triathlon events, or even management of traffic and flows on and around the sites.

Three types of tests

To meet the needs identified by Paris 2024, three types of test activities have been defined:

• THE test events operated by Paris 2024 are events for which Paris 2024 is responsible for organizing. These international-level competitions will be organized to meet a specific need for knowledge of certain sports or sites. By way of illustration, the Sailing event, which will take place in the Marseille Marina, will bring together the best specialists on the planet for all the events on the Games program and will allow Paris 2024 to test the sporting, medical and technology on the competition area. Paris 2024 will organize three other events before the start of the Olympic Games: an international Triathlon and Para triathlon competition from August 17 to 20, 2023 with the same routes in the Seine and on the road as at the Games, an international mountain bike competition in Elancourt on September 24, 2023 and finally an international field hockey tournament at the Yves-du-Manoir stadium in May 2024.
• THE events organized by national, international federations or third parties will allow Paris 2024 to test certain operations during events organized by other operators. The result of intense collaboration with national and international federations, these tests will also allow the general public to discover the Games sites in “competition” format. Thus, from October 5 to 8, 2023, the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical base will be the scene of the Canoe Slalom World Cup finals and will allow Paris 2024 to test the sporting and technical system of the competition pool., but also the new events on the program for Paris 2024.
• Finally, the operational testing are “targeted” tests organized by Paris 2024, including specific tests behind closed doors or by invitation of a limited number of athletes. In particular, they will make it possible to ensure the proper functioning of a site or to test the transition between different sports on the same site. Several sites will be concerned by this type of test, such as the Grand Palais (for example with the targeted deployment of the canopy cover to test the impact on the competition area and the test of the transition between competitions of Fencing and Taekwondo), or the Arena Bercy (with the test of the transition between Gymnastics and Basketball).

Year 2023 – The key dates of the Paris 2024 test program

Test events directly operated by Paris 2024

• 9 – 16 July 2023: international sailing competition, Marina de Marseille
• August 17 – 20, 2023: International Triathlon and Para triathlon competition, Pont Alexandre III in Paris
• September 24, 2023: international mountain bike competition, Colline d’Elancourt

Events organized by third-party entities during which Paris 2024 tests certain operations

• 26 – 27 July 2023: French Youth Championship, National Golf Course of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
• August 2 – 6, 2023 : U19 World Rowing Championship, Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium
• August 5 – 6, 2023: Open Water Swimming World Cup 2023 (4^e stage), Pont Alexandre III in Paris
• August 11 – 20, 2023: WSL Tahiti Pro, Teahupo’o, Tahiti
• August 19 – 20, 2023: Archery World Cup Paris 2023 (4^e stage), Invalides, in Paris
• 30 August – 1^is September 2023: Canoe-Kayak and Para canoe World Cup, Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium
• October 5 – 8, 2023: Finals of the Canoe Slalom World Cup, Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium

Operational tests

• July 2023: Roland-Garros stadium, in Paris (transition from Tennis to Boxing)
• August 2023: Arena Paris Sud 4 and 6, in Paris (Table tennis and Para table tennis, Handball, Weightlifting)
• August 2023: Grand Palais, in Paris (Fencing, Taekwondo and Para taekwondo)
• August 2023: La Concorde, in Paris (website)
• August 19, 2023: Invalides, in Paris (Para Archery)
• August 2023: Palace of Versailles (Horse riding – familiarization with the cross-country course)
• August – September 2023: Arena Champ de Mars, in Paris (Armchair Rugby, Breaking, Judo, Para judo, Wrestling)
• September 2023: Arena Bercy, in Paris (transition from Artistic Gymnastics to Basketball, Wheelchair Basketball)

Year 2024 – The key dates of the Paris 2024 test program (dates being confirmed)

Test events directly operated by Paris 2024

• 4 – 5 May 2024: Yves-du-Manoir stadium, in Colombes (Field hockey)

Events organized by third-party entities in which Paris 2024 tests certain operations

• 8 – 14 avril 2024 : National Shooting Center, in Châteauroux (Shooting & Para shooting)
• April 29 – May 8, 2024: Olympic Aquatics Center (Artistic Swimming, Diving, Water Polo)

Operational tests

• January – February 2024: Boccia (perimeter and location to be confirmed)
• mars 2024 : Arena Porte de La Chapelle, in Paris (Para Badminton, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Para Weightlifting)
• avril 2024 : BMX stadium in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (BMX Racing)
• May 2024: Palace of Versailles (Modern Pentathlon)
• June 2024: Le Bourget Climbing Site (Climbing), Paris La Défense Arena (Swimming, Water Polo, Para Swimming), Stade de France (Athletics, Para Athletics)