It’s not for lack of vision. Marine Lefebvre has lost count of the phone calls she has made to find out where her two children, ages 7 and 9, could learn to swim. “They are fascinated by Léon Marchand [le nageur qui a remporté quatre médailles d’or aux Jeux olympiques de Paris 2024] and asked us to sign them up for a club at the beginning of the school year. » But this girl from Lille has “uncovered” that the city lacks swimming pools: “They told me that, even in normal times, there were waiting lists for beginners. But here, with the “Léon Marchand effect”, it is worse. »
He even requested the Wasquehal swimming pool, 10 km from Lille, “while traveling during rush hour is a hassle”. She was advised to register her children through the website. “in which it is specified that he is… on the waiting list! »describe. When we call, we find an employee who is trying to do her best while, according to the latter, “That’s why the phone doesn’t stop ringing.”.
At the Plein Sud swimming pool in Lille, “There is a wait of about two years”. In the Three Cities of Hem, near Roubaix (North), “for children it is complete and has been for a long time”. Did you have any luck at the nearby pools? All are complete, especially since the Thalassa nautical center, one of the two facilities in Roubais, closed in September 2023 after the discovery of cracks in the structure. Its reopening is not planned before September 2025.
“What sense does it make to say that children need to know how to swim if we are losing our teeth due to lack of space? », upsets Ophélie Dubuisson, another Lille resident, who has thrown in the towel. “I enrolled my daughter in gymnastics, my son in judo because I want them to play sports. But they wanted the pool. The Olympic Games have been there», she says.
“We are not providing the means to finance equipment”
At a time when sport has established itself as a great national cause, when the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, declares that it is necessary “work so that all our young people have access to sport” and where his Sports Minister, Gil Avérous, says he wants “a decentralized sport, for everyone and accessible to everyone”, This situation is, to say the least, unique, not limited to Lille and the sole issue of swimming pools.
“When we make learning to swim a government priority and do not provide the means to fund the equipment, we should not be surprised by the situation”says Benjamin Mercier, vice president of the Hauts-de-France regional league and president of the Northern departmental swimming committee. As far as Lille is concerned, “we are the poorest metropolis of this size in France in terms of number of basins in relation to the number of inhabitants”, duck.
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