Olympic Games 2030: France has submitted its application to the IOC

Paris 2024 is counting, in a mixture of excitement and impatience, the days separating it from the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) and France is already planning. This Tuesday, a two-headed project, supported by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions, presented a candidacy for the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

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 relying on “95 percent of existing infrastructure” according to David Lappartient, the president of the 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 candidacy. 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” summarizes Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Rhône-Alpes Region.

Born during the summer (“It’s a one-two punch operation, we left last, we hope to arrive first” recalls Lappartient), the project joined forces in the hope of securing the organization of the 2030 Winter Olympics. (those of 2034 seeming 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 faces competition from Sweden (Stockholm) and Switzerland. “We are going to win, not to come second,” assures David Lappartient, who slips: “the social, economic, financial and environmental challenges impose themselves on 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.”

“The strength of our valleys is the strength of our mountains, the strength of our mountains is the life of our territories,” says Renaud Muselier, the president of the Rhône-Alpes Côte d’Azur region. Next step, the presentation of the file to the International Olympic Committee on November 21, before the officialization of the list of candidates. Then the verdict during the year 2024. Unlucky candidate for the organization of the 2018 Winter Olympics with Annecy, France has not organized the Winter Games since Albertville in 1992.