Metz Whitewater stadium

Centre disciplines

Canoe slalom

Description

Metz, a city of water, has the Moselle and the Seille running through it. The Whitewater Basin, Class II Passage III, commissioned in 1985, is located in the historic heart of the City of Metz. It has about sixty slalom training gates and about thirty so-called "Olympic" gates. The basin is supplied by two water valves with four navigation levels and 450 metres of white water. It is equipped with LED spotlights for night lighting. The Kayak Club is located 1km (by boat) from the whitewater basin. A boat pontoon and twenty slalom gates are located directly in front of the club (warm-up, slalom training in calm water). The club building (650m2), beyond its changing rooms/sanitary facilities, has a meeting room with video projector, equipped kitchen, a 40m2 weights room, a 500 m2 boathouse, a 1000 m2 car park and an outdoor area of about 2000m2. To boost its water-based activities, the City has carried out extensive actions in recent years to develop this canoe-kayak course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaA8FViAI4g

Special features

The natural yet urban setting of this whitewater basin is exceptional.

Kayakers, upstream of the basin, have a direct view of the Temple Neuf and Metz Cathedral.

In addition, it’s the only basin (except for those equipped with pumps) to have a constant water level, even in times of drought. And all within a radius of 500 km.

This is an ambitious course, due to the significant drop in height, the length of which is very large (450m).

Consequently, it is a highly prized basin at the national level, as well as by kayakers from border countries such as Belgium or Germany.

Known for

In 1998, the Metz Kayak Club organised the University World Championships, where Tony Estanguet won his first international title.

Since then, many events bringing together several hundred competitors have been organised: the French Multi-discipline and Multi-category Championships in 2011, the French Multi-category Slalom Championships in 2014, and the French Multi-category Slalom Championships and French Kayak X-TREM Championships in 2019 (900 boats).

Due to our proximity to Germany, the final of the German Championships (DKV) was organised in Metz in 2019, in partnership with the Saarbrücken club.

Optional extras

Meeting room Internet access Secure storage area Floodlit facilities Hospital nearby Weights room Film screening room