Clike a big holiday before its time in Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne). At Deauville Park, to the south of the city, dozens and dozens of children try out different sports: basketball, ping-pong, sprinting or even BMX… It must be said that the place is particularly equipped with sports infrastructure.
And this, thanks to the Olympic Games even though no events take place there and the city is more than 200 kilometers from Paris. “The Olympics are coming to Saint-Dizier, it is a world first that the Olympic heritage is elsewhere than in a city which hosts events”, welcomes the mayor, Quentin Brière, shortly before cutting the ribbon symbolizing the inauguration of the site.
Active design, a new way to move?
The sub-prefecture of Haute-Marne is a “pilot city for active design”, selected by the organizers of the Olympic Games, says Marie Barsacq, executive director Impact and Heritage of Paris 2024. Active design consists of diverting street furniture into equipment sportsmen. Example: adding climbing holds to schoolyard walls or installing trampolines in front of these establishments. In Saint-Dizier, the concept is used in schoolyards, in Deauville Park and on an 8 kilometer long loop whose development cost 1.5 million euros.
In 2023, 175 municipalities followed the example of Saint-Dizier and installed equipment in their schoolyards. The Deauville park, through which 600,000 people pass per year, is just as equipped. There are ping-pong tables, fishing spots along the Marne, sports equipment and also an obstacle course, built in conjunction with the military of air base 113 located right next door. Children and even adults discover the infrastructure under the noise of the Rafales taking off and landing nearby.
“It’s great, my son is enjoying it to the fullest, like many children. There are often people there all week. They should be everywhere! » pleads Lothie, who has lived in Saint-Dizier for two years. This equipment is “set to last a century”, believes the young mayor of the city, and which will benefit local schools and clubs.
Sedentary lifestyle, “pandemic of the century”
It is a strong symbol that this Olympic heritage outside of Île-de-France is found in Saint-Dizier and its 25,000 inhabitants. “It’s the archetype of medium-sized towns that have taken everything in their face,” according to its mayor. “Here, we are far from everything, we have neither the TGV nor the motorway, a quarter of the inhabitants are below the poverty line and the far right is at 50%”, lists Quentin Brière who has no stops reminding us of the social importance of sport.
So, Quentin Brière went all out to recreate links among his population and encourage them to play sports. “A sedentary lifestyle is the pandemic of the century. And the medicine for that is sport. » According to a study by Public Health France, 41% of women and 27% of men do not do as much sport as is recommended by health authorities.
To put his words into action, the mayor tested most of the equipment, including the sprint track. Its special feature: it is equipped with an educational radar, diverted from its use to measure the speed of the athletes. Flashed at 19 km/h, the mayor was slower than some children who ran up to 22 km/h for the best.
