Analysis: Stade de Colombes is the only facility from 100 years ago that will host events at this summer's games in Paris
By Ruadhán Cooke, University of Galway
The opening ceremony of this year's Olympic Games will take place on the River Seine in the centre of the French capital. Paris previously hosted the second Games of the modern era on the fringes of the Universal Exhibition of 1900, and again in the summer of 1924.
On the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Games, the first Olympics at which a 48-strong team of 46 men and 2 women from the recently independent Irish Free State competed as Ireland, what tangible legacy of the Games immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire endures? What remains of the stadium lit up by the exploits of British athletes Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell and the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi?
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In light of the burgeoning popular interest in the coverage of sporting events, the national daily newspaper Le Matin developed the Stade du Matin stadium in 1907 in the northwestern Parisian suburb of Colombes on the site of a horse racing track first opened in 1883. Racing Club de France, a socially exclusive multi-sports club founded in 1882, acquired the lease to the renamed Stade de Colombes in 1919, by which time it had already become a leading venue for athletics meetings and football and rugby matches. France was admitted to rugby's Five Nations Championship in 1910 and hosted Ireland for the first time at the Stade de Colombes on April 9th 1921, the previous games having taken place in the Parc des Princes (which will host some of this summer’s football matches).
Two years out from the 1924 Olympic Games, Paris still had no stadium suitable for an international event of this scale. With the support of public funds, Racing Club agreed to redevelop its facility and a state-of-the-art Olympic Stadium at Colombes was officially opened on May 4th 1924
United States vs France in 1924 Olympics rugby final
On that day, France defeated Romania in the Olympic rugby tournament, which comprised of only three nations. As defending champions from the 1920 Games, the United States had a bye to the final where they easily accounted for France in a match marred by violence and nicknamed the "Corrida of Colombes". Partly as a consequence, rugby was removed from the Olympic programme. Rugby Sevens became an Olympic sport in 2016 at the Rio Games and Ireland will be represented by both a women's and men’s team in Paris this year.
Although a number of events like art, rugby and football took place outside of the main window, the opening ceremony was held on Saturday, 5 July 1924 in the Olympic Stadium, which hosted the full athletics programme, cycling road race, gymnastics, some equestrian competitions, lawn tennis, rugby, football and a number of demonstration events. Irish competitors took part in football, art, athletics, boxing, lawn tennis and water polo.
Significant firsts for the Games were wireless radio broadcasts, an official closing ceremony and an athletes' village. In the aftermath, the stadium became France's de facto national stadium hosting rugby and football internationals, including the final of the 1938 FIFA World Cup.
In 1928 the stadium was renamed Stade Olympique Yves du Manoir. This was in memory of du Manoir, the Racing Club member, French rugby international and military aviator who had been killed that year in a plane accident. Incidentally, du Manoir won the first of his 8 caps when selected at out-half against Ireland at Colombes on New Year's Day 1925.
With redevelopment of the Parc des Princes in 1972, Colombes was relegated from French sport’s centre-stage. However, with some refurbishments over the decades, it most notably became the home ground of the Top 14 rugby franchise Racing 92 before the club relocated in late 2017 to the La Défense Arena, a venue hosting the 2024 swimming events in which Irish interest will be strong.
Read more: How did the first Irish Olympics team fare in Paris 100 years ago?
Owned since 2002 by the local authority for the Hauts-de-Seine (number 92 in the list of France's 96 départements), the Colombes complex has undergone extensive renovations and is the only facility from 100 years ago that will once again host events at this summer’s games, when it will be the venue for the full field hockey programme.
On Saturday next, the Irish men's team begins its campaign against Pool B opponents Belgium on Pitch 2 of the Yves du Manoir Stadium. When the Games conclude, the stadium will become the headquarters and centre of excellence for the French Hockey Federation. True to its original vocation, the complex will also accommodate rugby and football.
A number of venues that hosted events at the 1924 Games are still in use today and some will facilitate competing teams for training purposes this summer. This included the Georges Vallerey swimming pool, where Johnny Weissmuller, later of Tarzan fame, won three gold and a bronze medal for the United States in 1924. Weissmuller competed at the Tailteann Games in Dublin a few weeks later, winning his swimming event held in the pond at Dublin Zoo!
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Leaving aside issues relating to water quality in the Seine which could potentially jeopardise the open-water swimming events (Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and chair of the Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, had a high-profile swim in the Seine last week) and a number of mini-controversies, delivery of facilities for Paris 2024 has been on time and within budget.
Given the imperatives of sustainability and financial sobriety, and against the backdrop of accusations of sports washing levelled at so many large sporting events, Paris 2024 boasts that 95% of all the required infrastructure for organising the Games was already in place and that the legacy for Parisians and wider French society will be both real and lasting.
The Stade de France, built for the 1998 World Cup, has been repurposed at very little additional expense as the main Olympic Stadium. Indeed, the fact that the Colombes Olympic Stadium from 100 years ago is still in use, is a powerful symbol of responsible and environmentally sensitive sports infrastructure policy and planning.
Ruadhán Cooke teaches French at the University of Galway.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
