The Legacy and Sustainability plan for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games — 43 RENOVATING OR RESTORING VENUES THAT WILL HELP TRANSFORM THE REGION Following on from the Athletes’ Village and the Media Cluster, two iconic urban transformation locations, this section briefly presents the other major renovated or restored Paris 2024 venues and their legacy. • WATER SPORTS CENTRE IN VAIRES-SUR-MARNE The Water Sports Centre for the Greater Paris region is located in the town of Vaires-sur-Marne. With support from the French State and 85% of funding coming from the Greater Paris regional authorities, it is the largest white water centre in Europe. Its facilities make it the ideal venue for the rowing, canoe and kayak events during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Having been designed and approved before Paris won its bid to host the Games, the water sports centre – inaugurated on Olympic Day, 22 June 2019 – is considered to be an existing facility. The Water Sports Centre will offer elite water sports athletes top-class facilities. Boasting a new sports hub spanning 11 000 m2 including the white-water centre, a training pool, a training centre and a 140-bed facility, it is one of only three centres worldwide – the other two being in Beijing and Sydney – that bring together the three Olympic and Paralympic canoe and kayak events – slalom, sprint and para canoe – as well as rowing. Unmatched in Europe, this versatile centre will be able to accommodate all the canoe, kayak and rowing events (canoe slalom, canoe sprint, rowing, as well as the para canoe and para rowing events) during the Paris 2024 Games in one single venue near Paris. One of the major advantages of the centre is that it was designed with people who could use the venue before and after the Games in mind and meets elite athletes’ rigorous standards. Boasting a landscaped section of river for people to learn how to canoe, kayak, raft or swim in white water, along with a range of other new activities open to all (including fitness, sailing and standup paddleboarding), the new centre will even be accessible and of benefit to people not currently involved in sport. The Water Sports Centre will bring together water sports representative bodies, housing the headquarters of the French Canoe and Kayak Federation, its regional committee, advanced development centre and youth development centre, the Île-de-France Rowing League and its youth development centre, as well as the logistics platform of the French Rowing Federation. © – Hugues-Marie Duclos Inauguration of the Water Sports Centre, June 2019