Sunkid carries white-water athletes (Olympics Paris 2024) and young talents

The “Base Sports Nature” facility operated by Breton town Cesson-Sévigné (France) is offering a broad range of activities for competitive and leisure athletes as well as for associations and supervised outdoor excursions for schools and other guest groups. The focus is on water and boating sports – first and foremost in the town’s modernised white-water stadium.

Built in the late 1990s, the stadium for canoe and rafting sports underwent a facelift in 2023, when it was also expanded by a new white-water pool with a length of 120 metres and modern pump technology equipment. At a total height difference of 3.5 metres and a flow rate of up to 12 m³/s, the facility complies with International Canoe Federation (ICF) standards. 

These high demands are also met by the new boat transport system planned and integrated into the facility by Austrian conveyor specialist Sunkid. Sunkid’s CEO Emanuel Wohlfarter is happy: “Amongst other places, we have equipped the Olympic white-water stadium in Tokyo (2021) and the white-water facility “Neue Donau” in Vienna with some of our water conveyor belts before. Thanks to the “Terre de Jeux” label for the overall system, international kayak and canoe athletes are training for the Olympic summer games 2024 in Paris in Cesson-Sévigné as well.”

They are able to focus fully on training and the competitions ahead. The Sunkid solution means that they do not have to get out of their boats and carry their bulky equipment thanks to the endless conveyor belt with tried-and-tested Rufftop surface that takes athletes and boats alike safely and comfortably from the end of the canoe section to the raised start, powered by an 11-kW electric motor. Loading and unloading happens entirely in the water, even for large rafts with many passengers that can be carried on a belt width of 2 metres.

“With its multi-functional usage concept for top athletes and young talents and as a public leisure facility for families and schools experiencing water sports for the first time, the project in Cesson-Sévigné is reflecting the Sunkid philosophy of striving to be a global market leader for outdoor person conveyor belts (with more than 4,000 of them installed to date) and the first point of contact for year-round leisure attractions for the entire family,” Wohlfarter summarises.