By Gregory Maucorps
Published on 17 Dec 20 at 6:44
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In lack of sports infrastructure, the City ofIfs, south of Caen (Calvados), needed a new gym. Labeled “Active and sporting city” and “Land of Games 2024”, the municipality also wanted to build a place capable of hosting national events.
Its new 2,400 m setting2, started in May 2019, will be able to accommodate different disciplines: basketball, badminton, volleyball or handball. A 175 m2 boxing hall with dedicated changing rooms and toilets is also included in the project. Delivery is scheduled for February 2021.
Coubertin, Estanguet, Fourneyron proposed
In order to choose a name for the gymnasium, the City launched an online survey among its residents in November. Three names, resulting from preliminary consultations between the sports associations of the territory, the sports department and elected Ifois officials were put to the vote:
- Alice Milliat (in tribute to the French activist who fought for the recognition of women’s sport at the international level),
- Le Miroir (in reference to the metallic architecture of the gymnasium and to the now defunct newspaper: Le mirror des sports)
- Le Plateau (echoing the southern plateau of Caen and the multisports plateau).
Voters had the option of proposing other names. Thus, Pierre de Coubertin, Tony Estanguet, Valérie Fourneyron, Jacques Secretin, Pierre Mendès France, Yolande Gaillard (emblematic figure of the Ifois twinning committee who died on November 2) or Jeannot Marie (deceased Ifois cyclist) have been added.
77% of votes
The poll, shared on social networks, the City’s website and magazine, garnered 476 votes between November 19 and December 6.
In the end, it’s Alice milliat which won the poll hands down with 77% of the votes, ahead of Le Miroir (15% of the vote) and Le Plateau (3%). The other proposals concerned 5% of the votes.
“The City of Ifs is pleased with the choice made by the public and would like to thank the inhabitants and associations who mobilized to choose the name of the future facility”.
Who was Alice Milliat?
Alice Milliat is an inspiring personality. It was she who, thanks to her fight, enabled women to participate in the Olympic Games. Born May 5, 1884 in Nantes and died May 19, 1957 in Paris, Alice Milliat is to women’s sport what Baron de Coubertin is to the Olympic movement. Sportswoman (she mainly practices rowing, but also swimming and field hockey), president of the Fémina Sport club in 1915, she was one of the founders of the Federation of Women’s Sports Societies of France in 1917. She will also become the president of the FSFSF in 1919.
She campaigned for the participation of women in the Olympic Games, and, faced with the refusal of the IOC, decided to organize women’s competitions, first national (French women’s football championship for example) then international (Monte-Carlo meeting in 1921, followed by the first edition of the World Women’s Games in Paris in 1922). The success of the second edition of the latter, organized in Sweden in 1926, was such that the IOC finally authorized women to participate in official events at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.
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