CAO, The water park Paris

As part of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Aquatic Center has been built in the heart of the Plaine Saulnier ZAC, opposite the Stade de France Saint-Denis. It is linked to the Stade de France by a footbridge spanning the A1 freeway.

Update for June 2026: “The Greater Paris Metropolitan Olympic Aquatics Center will host the European Swimming Championships from Friday, July 31, to Sunday, August 16, 2026.”

Olympic Aquatics Center in Saint-Denis, across from the Stade de France, and the bridge connecting the two sites

Year-Round Activities

The Olympic swimming pool in Saint-Denis offers a wide range of facilities and activities:

• A 25-meter learning pool
• A recreational pool
• A fitness center (Recrea)
• An Arkose bouldering gym
• Padel tennis courts
• A sports recycling center

This sports facility, accessible to everyone, also hosts national and international competitions. In this context, an additional 2,500 seats can be added to restore the spectator capacity to the level seen during the 2024 Olympic Games (for a total of 5,000 seats).

• 1 Olympic-size 50-meter pool
• 2,500 seats
• 5,000 m² of roof covered with solar panels

A Footbridge Between the CAO and the Stade de France

The footbridge connecting the Stade de France and the Olympic Aquatics Center (CAO) was installed between August 8 and 11, 2022, over the A1 (which required the closure of that section of the highway). During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was used exclusively by people with tickets to a competition. It is now open to the general public.

The architectural project of the Olympic aquatic center

In early October 2020, the architectural project of the Olympic Aquatic Center (CAO) was presented. This 4 hectare site will require the following materials to be manufactured:

• + 1,200 tons of bio-sourced materials,
• 4,680 m2 of photovoltaic panels,
• 8.5 tons of recycled local plastic waste to make the seats for the bleachers.

Renewable energies will provide 84% of the heating needs of this 30-meter high, 106-meter wide and 114-meter long building.

Entirely designed using bio-sourced materials, the CAO was delivered at the end of 2023, opening to the organization managing Paris 2024 in April 2024.

A long-term project to become a national training center

Paris 2024 wishes to adopt a lasting approach regarding the equipments built up for the Olympic Games to promote sport development on its territory, and especially in Seine-Saint-Denis, that has much to offer for sport. After the Olympics, the water park will welcome  the national training center and the French swimming federation headquarters. It will also be opened for the inhabitants and added to the list of the different pools and water parks opened to the public in the North-East area of Paris.

Other nautical sites in Seine-Saint-Denis will be used as training sites for the Olympic Games.

Baleine in Saint-Denis
The water sports center in Noisy-le-Sec
The swimming pool of Aulnay-sous-Bois
The Maurice Thorez water sports stadium in Montreuil (water polo)
Vallerey swimming pool - Paris 20th