“Seine-Saint-Denis is the bomb baby”: full sound, it was to the sound of NTM, a famous hip hop group from the department, that Tony Estanguet split the crowd of children gathered in front of the town hall of Saint-Denis. After Tokyo, the flags of the Olympic Games arrived in France, starting with Seine-Saint-Denis, with Tony Estanguet, former Olympic champion and president of Paris 2024.
–“It is important that we launch this national tour from Saint-Denis”, launched the president of Paris 2024 to several hundred young people from leisure centres, colleges and some high schools in the city, who came to watch the arrival of the Olympic flags. These were presented to the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo during the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo on September 6.
“We, what we preferred were the flags and the food given to the children”, explains a sixth-grade student who observes with his classmates two fencers warming up in an inflatable play area set up for the occasion opposite the town hall. For their teacher, Alicia, this “cultural openness” is very important: “with the Olympics, children can discover sports to which they are not accustomed”, she comments. Like others, she eagerly awaits the benefits of the games and “not just the noise and the works. Our college is located between Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen, in the heart of the future Olympic village, she says. There are construction sites everywhere at the moment and some students have to make long detours to come to class.
“Lack of infrastructure”
A little further on, teenagers practice muay thai under the watchful eye of Sam Berrandou, former world champion in the discipline and director of the Saint-Denis Sports Office. “These Olympic Games are an opportunity to put the French in sport, he considers. But to get there, we also have to develop equipment and, here, in Seine-Saint-Denis, there is a glaring lack.”
Proud to host the games
For her part, Salimata, a student at Iqbal Masih College and a rugby player, considers that this ceremony can show another image of her department. “I am very proud that it is happening here in Seine-Saint-Denis”, she enthuses.
A pride that can also be read in the eyes of Philian, a 6th grade student from Alfred Sisley College in Ile-Saint-Denis where the flags were also presented to the students after having made a detour to the leisure center of the Island of Vannes in Saint-Ouen. But “if there is no football or basketball, I will not follow the games”, he warns.
The hundred students gathered in a large college room welcomed Thierry Rey, former world champion and Olympic judo champion, former basketball champion Emmeline Ndongue, silver medalist at the London Olympics and trampolinist Allan Morrante born in Drancy and who took part in the Tokyo Olympics.
For the head of the establishment labeled “generation 2024”, Yannick Porte, this presentation will remain a highlight :“when the games start in 2024, the 6th graders who were here today will still be in college and they will remember this moment,” he points out.
