Mantes-la-Ville: 170 children are denied access to the gym… right before the Olympic Games

170 children on the street? This is what the coaches of the gymnastics section of the sports club (SA) Mantes-la-Ville (Yvelines) fear. They have just learned that “their” Gymiez Gymnasium will be closed for more than a year for major renovations. The last training is scheduled for the end of June and is not due to resume until the start of the 2026 school year. The schedule is pretty bad: the city has been chosen as the site of the Olympic Games, it has the sign “Game Land 2024” and will even see the flames pass on July 23. “What message is being sent to our young graduates? The city will welcome the Olympic flame, but our municipality has decided to extinguish the flame of our gymnasts,” we curse in the corridors of the club.

“When the closure was announced, our children cried. Children who invest and work every day. What will I tell them today? That they will have to stop? The risk is that we will lose some of our licensees forever,” laments Loic Bozek, technical manager of this section, which has 95% young girls, five coaches and several podiums at the French Championships.

So what should you tell them? The mayor’s office says it is the “power of proposals” on this issue. Thus, solutions were found for other disciplines. But with the gym everything is more complicated. This sport requires appropriate infrastructure: sometimes before the start you need to run 25 m on one of the apparatuses… Therefore, it is impossible to move to the municipal hall or to the school yard.

Occupy other sites? Victims of their success, clubs in this sector are also oversaturated and refusing new registrations. It is difficult under these conditions to accept athletes from other municipalities. “And even so? Due to a lack of space, a triage will take place. How can we choose between a 5-year-old girl and a 14-year-old teenager who will have the right to continue to study? “Loïc Bojec agrees.

The burned-out gymnasium has not yet been restored

You shouldn’t count on transferring to the Aimé-Berjal gymnasium either. This equipment, destroyed by a fire of unknown origin in March 2021, has not yet been restored. Administrative difficulties related to insurance significantly slowed procedures and prevented delivery “at the end of 2023,” as the department’s board initially announced.

However, things seem to be moving forward: 88 companies responded to the tender announced by the city hall. The selection will be made in the coming weeks and the winner will be announced in June. Twelve months of study and 18 months of work will follow. If the schedule is met, and barring last-minute setbacks, the Aimé-Berjal Gymnasium could be completed within 2026. Thus, the possibility of moving into these walls of a gymnastics club, even for a few months, is absolutely impossible.

“It’s really not easy because there are a lot of restrictions,” admits a person close to the mayor (DVG) Sami Damergi. But we reaffirm our desire to find solutions. This was our desire from the very beginning. A new meeting is planned for March 9 to discuss this issue and work together. But in all cases it is impossible to reschedule work. The Gimier Grammar School is dilapidated and we don’t want any accidents: work must begin. In addition, the presence of asbestos prevents us from conducting activities during construction. »