History of the Stadium Pierre de Coubertin
Welcome to the page dedicated to the history of the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium!
Home of the Paris-Saint Germain Handball and temple of French indoor sports, discover what makes the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium so unique, as well as the events that have forged its history over the years.
HISTORY
The first covered stadium built in France, the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium was hastily inaugurated in 1937 on the occasion of the Paris Universal Exhibition.
The French Basketball team triumphed over Latvia 25-24 in the final of the Nations Cup Basketball, an unusual competition also organised within the framework of the Universal Exhibition.
Scarred by the marks of the Second World War, the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium will be rebuilt at the end of the 1940s and will become the showcase of indoor sports in Paris.
The Stade Pierre de Coubertin, a figurehead of French sports heritage, will host the French indoor team from 1950 to the present day.
In 1955, French and German handball players will compete in this hall located at Porte Saint-Cloud, with a German victory at the conclusion of the match. The last international handball selection meeting in Coubertin saw the French women's team win against Slovenia 26-18.
Over the decades, we will see French basketball players facing the world's greatest teams (USSR, USA, Greece...).
The Stade Pierre de Coubertin is not to be outdone in the boxing world, but also in the individual disciplines. It will host the Paris Judo Tournament for three decades and will be the home of the Paris Women's Tennis Open between 1993 and 2014. Today, the best badminton players in the world compete every year at the French Badminton International, and the greatest fencers and karatekas do not miss their annual meeting in the 16th arrondissement.
On the occasion of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium will host the Goalball events. This team sport, invented in 1946, is designed for the visually impaired and blind. It pits two teams of three opponents against each other who must score a sound ball into the opponent's goal by throwing it on the ground.
ARCHITECTURE
Two materials stand out as typical features of the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium: brick and glass. The latter combine to give it its inimitable character.
Witnessing the art deco architecture that symbolises the decade of its creation, the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium features a 1,000 m² glass roof with a view of the grounds from the reception hall and its mezzanine.
The proximity between the pitch and the stands makes Coubertin a warm place, where the sounds of the game and the songs of the Parisian fans can be heard and felt on both sides of the handrail.
PSG at Coubertin
Parisians' first steps at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin date back to the nineties, with in particular the Handball and Basketball sections of a Paris Saint-Germain omnisport. At that time, French sports legends such as Tony Parker and Jackson Richardson, each in their own discipline, wore the Red & Blue jersey.
Since 2012, the biggest names in French and world handball have set foot in Coubertin under the Parisian colours: Nikola Karabatic, Thierry Omeyer, Daniel Narcisse, Luc Abalo, Mikkel Hansen, Uwe Gensheimer, Sander Sagosen...
SOME OF THE MANY MATCHES THAT MADE HIS LEGEND
April 29th, 2017
On April 29th, 2017, the Parisians face the Hungarian club Szeged in the quarter-finals of the EHF Champions League. While the European Cup matches were played in previous seasons at the Halle Carpentier, the Stade Pierre de Coubertin is now approved for these European matches and will see PSG qualify for its second Final 4 of the EHF Champions League.
Under the encouragement of the 8ème Homme, the Assidus and for the first time the Collectif Ultras Paris, the Rouge et Bleu maintained the advantage they had gained in the quarter-final first leg and qualified thanks to a 30 points draw everywhere.
