Pierre-Mauroy Stadium in Lille: from Yoro’s goals to LeBron’s dunks

The stadium Pierre-Mauroy de Villeneuve-d’Ascqwhere he plays his French First Division football matches at home. Lille, will change its appearance in the coming days. It will now host the group stage of the US Olympic basketball tournament. Games of Paris 2024which will be resolved -both for women and men-, starting with the quarterfinals, in the French capital.

He Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC) finished fourth in the last edition of Ligue 1, with 59 points, 17 behind the champion, the PSG by Luis Enrique Martínez. And in their ranks a young central defender stood, Lenny Yoro18 years old – he won’t be 19 until November -, whose real Madriduntil, at the beginning of last week, his signing for Manchester United English.

Yoro He will defend the ‘Bleus’ in the Olympic football tournament but Lille, however, will not see the young French star in action. They will have to live, hand in hand, with the stunning triples of Steph Curry and the companions of lebron James, two of the stars of the stellar ‘Team USA’, the team to beat, looking for a fifth consecutive Olympic gold on French territory. A feat that his compatriots can improve on, aiming for their eighth title – all of them, since the Olympic Games. atlanta, the last to take place in the US – in women’s competition. where the Californian Diana Taurasi could mark a milestone by getting his sixth gold medal.

For both women and men, the tournament promises to be spectacular and will feature other great figures of international stature; which almost always, independently, refers to two North American professional leagues: the NBA and the WNBA. AND France aim high: in past Games, the Tokyo, the local team took silver in the men’s competition; and bronze for women.

Victor Wembanyama (2.24-meter center of the San Antonio Spurs, number 1 in the draft in 2023) was called to lead the local team, in a tournament in which the Serbian Nikola also stood out, among others. Jokic (again MVP -Most Valuable Player- of the NBA with the Denver Nuggets, who took the penultimate ring), the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks) or Dennis Schroeder (Brooklyn Nets): leader of Germany who won gold in the previous World Cup, the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. Where he was named MVP.

Without forgetting, of course, Spanish Rudy Fernandezto mark another milestone: he will be the first player to compete in six Olympic Games.

Winner of absolutely everything with him real Madrid and with ‘la Familia’, the Mallorcan forward, double world champion and quadruple European champion included Spain39 years old, who will leave high competition – at the top – after Paris 2024has two silvers (Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and one bronze (Rio 2016) in his five previous Olympic appearances.

The Spain of Sergio Scariolo -which comes this Thursday in Lille- will be measured in group A of the men’s tournament -in that order- Australia, Greece and Canada. The host, Olympic runner-up in Tokyo, is part of B with Germany, Japanese and Brazil. USA begins the defense of the title against Serbia in group C, which completes Puerto Rico and Sudan from the south.

In the women’s competition, the Spanish team led by Miguel Mendez start against China; and will also be measured in Puerto Rico and Serbia in group A. France, Olympic bronze three years ago at the Tokyo Games, will meet Canada, Nigeria and Australia in B. And the United States will begin to aim for the eighth gold against the Japanesein C, which also includes Belgium and Germany.

In both tournaments, the two first and the two best third parties qualify for the quarterfinals, which will open the outcome of the tournament, which will take place in Paris-Bercythe final week of competition.

But first, on Games basketball games will be played in Paris Pierre-Mauroy from Lille. Built in 2012, the main stadium of the fourth largest urban area in France – with an estimated population of one million and two hundred thousand inhabitants – has a capacity of 50,186 spectators for football matches; decreased to 28,800 in basketball. Almost double is sure to fill up Bercy (15,900) from quarters.

This is not the first time that the modern facility outside of Lille – where matches from the 2016 European Football Championship were also played – hosts major tournaments in other sports. The Cup finals were played there Davis in 2014 and 2017, the year it organized the Handball World Cup.

But the most important, in the field of basketball, is the 2015 Eurobasket, which is also played in Croatia, Germany and Latvia. Whose last stage took place at Pierre-Mauroy and was won very well by Spain. Defeated Lithuania in the final, before realizing, in the semifinals, France. In that memorable game where the brilliant Pau Gasol scored 40 points.