2030 Olympics: IOC to visit French Alps next week

The 2030 Olympic Games are even closer to France. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will begin a tour of the Alps this week to visit sites expected to host the 2030 Winter Games.

From the mountains of Savoy and Haute-Savoie to Nice, on the shores of the Mediterranean, through the resorts of the Hautes Alps, a group of experts will study in five days the routes and infrastructure proposed by the French candidate, who is now alone in the fight for this final stage of the “targeted dialogue”.

This involves a “detailed study” of the project, from site maps to logistical aspects, including political and financial guarantees, public support or environmental impacts, as Jacqueline Barrett, the director in charge of future Olympic hosts within the Olympic Body, explained this week.

No visit to Val d’Isere

The visit is one of the anticipated milestones for the French candidacy since its selection by the IOC last November as the “preferred host” of the 2030 Winter Games, while the US city of Salt Lake City was the only one chosen to host the 2034 Olympics of the year.

If these two documents are considered convincing, the “future Olympic Winter Games Commission” will recommend them to the head of the IOC in mid-June, before the official awards ceremony on July 23 and 24 in Paris by members of the organization. gathered for their 142nd session ahead of the opening of the 2024 Games.

The French Alps candidacy has been met with outcry from environmentalists since its introduction, but uncertainty about its future remains very limited. Even before the visit, Jacqueline Barrett and Christophe Duby, the IOC’s chief executive of the Olympic Games, hailed the “magnificent project”, praising the beauty of the landscape, local expertise in organizing sports and the “political” structure. .-administrative” left preparations for the 2024 Olympics.

The future host’s commission will visit four Olympic and Paralympic centers from north to south, starting with Haute-Savoie (cross-country skiing in La Clusaz and biathlon in Grand-Bornand), an important site of Savoy, including alpine skiing and luge ((La Plagne, Courchevel and Bozel), snowboarding and freestyle in Montgenevre and Serre Chevalier in the Hautes-Alpes and finally ice sports in Nice.

However, a visit to Val d’Isere is not planned, despite a request from its mayor, Patrick Martin, for a slalom competition, echoing former cross-country skiing champion Jean-Claude Killy, who was outraged at seeing “a whole piece of ski racing history.” . This exclusion from the system was motivated by the “site grouping” policy.

“The first environmentally responsible games in history”

The future site for speed skating has not yet been determined: it could use overseas infrastructure or a rented hall, as at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan. It is also necessary to clarify travel plans, which are complex in the very vast mountainous area stretching from Grand Bornand to Nice via Courchevel.

The Commission will be welcomed by Laurent Vauquier and Renaud Musellier, the respective Presidents of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions, who are the initiators of the nomination.

The government fully supports the project, local government minister Dominique Faure said in Grenoble this week, praising that the previous Games in Grenoble (1968) and Albertville (1992) were “each time moments of joy, harmony, unity and “In six years, we will be able to stage the first ever fully environmentally responsible Games,” she assured, disputing any risk of an “environmental fiasco.”