after Paris 2024, the French Alps will extend the Olympic dream

The future of the Winter Olympic Games was one of the highlights awaited by the Executive Commission of the International Olympic Committee visiting Paris (including a visit to Roland-Garros or the Paris 2024 village on the program). What about the 2030 Winter Olympics? Sweden and Switzerland have in recent months seen the emergence of the candidacy of the French Alps. A file carried by the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur and Auvergne Rhône Alpes regions which should remain, according to our information, after the officialization of the IOC around 6 p.m., as the only one in the running. France is making the splits to organize the Winter Olympics after the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. The final election of the French Alps site will be made in 2024. But no obstacle seems to prevent this success.

The French Alps project is deployed around four centers (Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Briançonnais, Nice Côte d’Azur). With in particular alpine skiing (Courchevel, Méribel and Val d’Isère for slaloms), biathlon (Le Grand Bornand), cross-country skiing (La Clusaz), bobsleigh, skeleton, luge, jumping and combined (La Plagne) , snowboard cross, freestyle skiing (Isola 2000), figure skating, ice hockey, short track, curling (Nice)… The only things missing in a system based on “95 percent of existing infrastructure» according to David Lappartient, the president of Cnosf, the ice rink (imagined in Nice) and the speed ring (which would be either a temporary structure or a site installed abroad).

“This is an extraordinary application. That of those who love the mountains. There is a bit of a crazy side but we are convinced that we can win. The Winter Games were born in Chamonix in 1924. Our objective, to make the French Alps, sustainably inclusive mountains» summarized Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Rhône-Alpes region, a few days ago.

The French candidacy aims to be sober: a budget of 1.5 billion euros

Born during the summer (“It’s a punch operation, we left last, we hope to arrive first» recalls Lappartient), the project joined forces in the hope of obtaining the organization of the 2030 Winter Olympics (those of 2034 seem to be reserved for the United States and Salt Lake City). The French candidacy is intended to be sober. The budget was estimated at 1.5 billion euros.

The ambitious project faced strong competitors: Sweden (Stockholm) and Switzerland. “We go to win, not to come second», assured David Lappartient, the president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee who slipped: “the social, economic, financial and environmental challenges confront us and are gigantic. We expressed the ambition or the audacity to build the Games of tomorrow which embrace these challenges to transform them into opportunities for sport, athletes, territories, societies..”

France has not organized the Winter Games since Albertville in 1992

“The strength of our valleys is the strength of our mountains, the strength of our mountains is the life of our territories», Supported Renaud Muselier, the president of the Rhône-Alpes Côte d’Azur region, symbol of a unison project. Thirty-eight years after the Albertville Olympics, France is preparing to experience new emotions. The Paris 2024 Games and those of the French Alps in 2030.