Paris 2024 Olympics: a competition sand used for the iconic Eiffel Tower Stadium, the beach volleyball arena

From July 27 to August 10, the Eiffel Tower Stadium will be shining brightly to the rhythm of the beach volleyball athletes' achievements. The iconic venue for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games promises some great action in the men's and women's tournaments... on some competitive sand.

In its Olympic history, beach volleyball, which entered the calendar in 1996 in Atlanta has often been on mythical venues: Bondi Beach in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, the Horse Guards Parade in 2012 in London, UK, and Copacabana Beach in 2016 in Rio, Brazil. This year, for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it is at the Iron Lady's foot - in an arena logically named the Eiffel Tower Stadium - that the 108 games in the two tables will be contested.

Built on the Champ-de-Mars in March this year, the Eiffel Tower Stadium impresses with its grandstands (seating for 13,000) and its iconic location. The volleyball players will therefore be playing in an ideal setting... and on a state-of-the-art playing surface.

The sand, a very important element in this sport, has been meticulously chosen. It comes from the Montgru-Saint-Hilaire sand quarry, located in the Aisne department around 100km from Paris and capable of extracting 500,000 tonnes a year. Owned by Sibelco, it hasn't been chosen by chance. It already supplied the sand for the Athens 2004, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

A very fine sand at the Eiffel Tower Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Secondly, the sand from this quarry meets the required criteria: it is extremely fine, with a grain size of less than 500 microns, but mainly greater than 250 microns (0.25 millimetres in diameter), which gives the pitch a greater stability. It's not completely clear, but off-white, preventing reverberation and thus improving visual comfort for players. With its high silica content, the sand heats up less in the sun, so volleyball players won't burn their feet during games.

Following the Paris 2024 Olympics, beach volleyball's sand will be reused on four courts located in the Île-de-France region and, more specifically, in the Hauts-de-Seine and Seine-Saint-Denis. Finally, the Eiffel Tower Stadium will host the Blind football competitions during the Paralympic Games.