The French Alps’ candidacy to organize the 2030 Winter Olympics took an important step on Wednesday at the expense of Switzerland and Sweden by entering alone a “targeted dialogue” with the International Olympic Committee, which will choose next year’s host , the IOC announced on Wednesday.
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This decision by the IOC Executive Board meeting in Paris changes France from an “interested party” to an “expected host” of the competition, even though Paris will already host the Summer Olympics in eight months.
AFP
The French Alps, which launched its candidacy last summer at the same time as Switzerland – Sweden had been in the race since February – will now have to go through several months of detailed evaluation of its file, from the location map to the planned heritage, environmental impact, financing and political support.
This choice of the IOC has already aroused the enthusiasm of Emmanuel Macron, who spoke of his “pride” on X (formerly Twitter). “Innovative, sustainable and inclusive games that will light up France and its mountains,” he also posted.
Express campaign
The project, which ensures that it is based on 95% of the existing sites, stretches from Nice to Grand Bornand, almost 500 km apart, with an alpine ski center on the Courchevel-Méribel and Val d’Isère sites, cross-country skiing in La Clusaz and an Olympic village in Nice, as well as the ice skating events.
If the IOC executive deems France’s guarantees sufficient, it will recommend its appointment as the 2030 Olympics host during a meeting next year – to be held in Paris in July, just before the 2024 Olympics, Karl Stoss announced. However, this will first require a change to the Olympic Charter, which currently does not allow an edition of the Games to be awarded to the country hosting an IOC session.
Conversely, if the French file is considered disappointing, the Olympic body can refer the candidacy to a “permanent dialogue”, that is, to start the process again, a hypothesis that is, however, unlikely in less than seven years of competition.
For the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, this step is a confirmation of “France’s recognized experience in organizing international sporting events”. “The IOC knows that France delivers when it commits,” she said during a video conference with the two presidents of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) and Auvergne regions. -Rhône-Alpes (ARA), Renaud Muselier and Laurent Wauquiez, who submitted this candidacy.
This project, launched in a few months and which took a decisive turn this summer with the arrival of David Lappartient, member of the IOC, at the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), was therefore successful with an express campaign.
The candidacy, endorsed this summer by the Elysée Palace, has successfully passed the mandatory stages related to the agenda set by the Olympic Administration. Namely, the timely submission of the file on November 7th and a thirty-minute major speech on the 21st before the members of the special IOC Commission, attended by the Minister of Sports, accompanied by the two regional presidents and the President Committee French Olympian David Lappartient.
“Terrible”
However, she didn’t just have support. The environmental groups EELV had this summer particularly denounced “a presidential guarantee that would contravene zero net artificiality laws and make a mockery of water shortages, as the Olympics would lead to a phenomenal acceleration in the concreting of our beautiful mountains.”
The question of the snow cover becoming weaker from year to year and the paradox of investing heavily in winter sports in the midst of global warming is regularly raised by opponents.
“We are back for seven years of struggle and we will not give up,” reacted Stéphane Passeron, member of the No-JO collective and former top cross-country skier, to AFP.
“There will be problems, there could be a riot, a bad riot. We cannot be in Dubai at the same time (COP 28, editor’s note) and say that the world is collapsing, and do this without any consultation, take a decision in six months that will bind the Alpine economy for thirty years, that is not the case possible. It’s terrible.”