Announced on Wednesday January 12, 2022, the closure of the Olympic swimming pool in Gentilly, the last in the metropolis of Greater Nancy, is causing a stir. Clubs and high-level athletes are waiting for answers to continue their training in good conditions.
The health crisis had already had a major impact on the nautical clubs of Greater Nancy with the closing of basins. Only top athletes were then allowed to train. The closure on Wednesday January 12, 2022 of the last Olympic swimming pool in the metropolis, planned for a more distant horizon, has completed confusing clubs and athletes.
Blandine Thibult, mother of two promising young swimmers, Léonie and Clara (quintuple gold medalist at the French championships for 11-12 year olds last December), is asking herself a lot of questions today.
“We knew that the Gentilly swimming pool was going to close but not now! My daughters do six to seven training sessions a week, it’s already very heavy to manage. We are being told this time about training in Champigneulles or Lunéville to compensate, it will be unmanageable even if I will do everything so that my daughters can train in view of their personal investment”.
High-level swimmers indeed need a large number of hours to maintain their level, to progress, to be ready for competitions.
What the mother of the little champions confirms : “after a week of vacation, it takes three weeks to get back up to speed, the risk with dotted training in always different pools is that the season is over for them. Léonie has the French championships in May, the next fortnight will be decisive”.
We are waiting for a redeployment for our 600 members and answers from the Greater Nancy metropolis.
Philippe Fabris, President ASPTT Nancy
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For his part the President of theASPTT Nancy, Philippe Fabris, wants to keep a cool head : “we are waiting for a redeployment for our 600 members and answers from the metropolis of Greater Nancy. There will be no ideal solution apart from staying where we are but we will do the best with what we are will give as a slot”.
The first solution is called Champigneulles, a swimming pool managed by the community of the Bassin de Pompey, the only Olympic swimming pool near Nancy being Lunéville.
“It’s not just the high level for which we have to organize ourselves, there are in particular the “I’m learning to swim” courses during the holidays for which there is demand with the delay taken by the most young people with the health crisis. We hope to rewrite all of this in serenity and not in haste and to have real fixed answers for next season”.
In addition to swimming, all aquatic disciplines are affected by this closure and among them water polo. Laure Gauthreau, President of the Grand Nancy Aquatic Club and coach of the Water Polo team was very surprised by this closure, but she is already imagining solutions: “we would need a mobile pool of 50 meters with a depth of 1.80 meters in five lanes, outdoors, we wouldn’t mind, it has already been done elsewhere“.
The coach also counts with the Nancy university swimming pool, the Océananauts, which this time depends on national education, not on the metropolis. A pool of 25 meters but which is deep, a pool which must also close its doors in April for works… “We have 450 members for whom we must find solutions with artistic swimming as well.“.
What about matches? “For the elite water polo team, we no longer have a swimming pool for the matches, I have already scheduled those for February at the Thionville swimming pool which has a 50-meter pool, some training may be done also there” adds Laure Gauthreau.
No swimming pool is equipped with a diving board like that of Gentilly, you have to find the swimming pool and equip it
Katsiaryna Mazanik, plongeon section ASPTT Nancy
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Another problem is that of divers, a practice that requires having a fairly deep pool. “This is bad news, is sorry Katsiaryna Mazanik, head of the diving section at ASPTT Nancy, but I want to remain confident, they are not going to leave us like this. The problem is that swimming pools are not flexible enough to accommodate all disciplines! No swimming pool is equipped with a diving board like that of Gentilly, you have to find the swimming pool and equip it…“
The only certainty for clubs and water sports enthusiasts is that they are all waiting for answers from the metropolis.
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