Henri Dujol Olympic Park
Originally known as the Albertville Olympic Park, the park was renamed in 2006 in honour of a former mayor who was at the forefront of the town’s modernisation for the Games. Designed to host a number of sports, it features several venues and facilities.
Among them is the Halle Olympique, which was built for the figure skating and short track speed skating events at the Games. It is still in use and still has an ice rink, which remains open to the public and hosted the French Short Track Speed Skating Championships in 2010. It is also a training base for the French ice hockey and short track teams, and includes a 17m high climbing wall.
Away from winter sports, the Halle Olympique staged matches at the 2017 World Handball Championship as well as the 2018 Davis Cup tie between France and the Netherlands. Now boasting a reduced capacity of 6,500/9,000 spectators for sport events/concerts, it is a multi-purpose facility and a key venue for business, art and cultural events, including ballet productions.
In December 2019, the Halle Olympique became the new home of the Tremplin 92 - Montagne et Olympisme, the renamed Olympic Museum. It stages temporary exhibitions along with a permanent one that tells the story of the 1992 Games.
Nearby stands the Olympic Oval, a purpose-built open-air venue. Its temporary ice sheet was removed after the Games and the facility converted into a 10,000-capacity multipurpose stadium. It is used by the town’s athletics, rugby and football clubs for meetings, matches and training and also hosts occasional rock concerts.
The location for the Albertville 1992 Opening and Closing Ceremonies – regarded as among the finest events of their kind – the Théâtre des Cérémonies was also part of the Olympic Park. Considered at the time as the largest temporary structure ever built, it had a capacity of 35,000 and was taken down as soon as the Games were over. A model for subsequent temporary venues, it is now an urban park. All that remains of the original construction is the 52-metre tall flagpole that once stood at its centre and was a distinctive feature of the Albertville 1992 ceremonies.