Last Tuesday, a brand new swimming pool was inaugurated in La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis), which will serve as a training facility for water polo teams during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It was also built to become a lasting legacy in this department, the poorest in France. 

It will be part of the Annette Kellermann complex. It is named after the Australian swimmer. The new swimming pool covers an area of 4,600 square metres. 1,600 square metres of this will be used for competition (eight lanes), swimming lessons, leisure and wellness.

It will be open to students from April. It will then be used primarily as a training facility for water polo teams during the Paris Olympics. It will also have an outdoor area with 7-a-side rugby pitches. It will be open to the public in the autumn of 2024.

It is one of four new pools in the département, along with those in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Aubervilliers and the Olympic aquatic centre in Saint-Denis. "We will go from 60,000 visits to the old pool (in La Courneuve, NDLR) to 300,000 visits to this new pool," rejoiced the Département President, alongside the President of the Ile-de-France Region, Valérie Pécresse, and the Mayor of the Metropolis, Patrick Ollier.

Annette Kellermann invented the first women's swimsuit that allowed free swimming," he recalled, referring to the pioneering athlete born in 1886, whose achievements have contributed to the creation of the facility that will bear her name. 

The Seine-Saint-Denis area lacks aquatic facilities. It has 60 square metres of swimming pool space per 10,000 inhabitants, compared with 160 square metres in the Île-de-France region and 260 square metres nationally. According to AFP, one in two children entering secondary school in the département cannot swim.