The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Wednesday evening that it had only accepted the candidacy of the French Alps for the organization of the Winter Olympics in 2030, and that of Salt Lake City for 2034.
The candidacy of the French Alps for the organization of the Winter Olympics in 2030 took an important step on Wednesday, at the expense of Switzerland and Sweden, by entering alone into “targeted dialogue” with the International Olympic Committee which will designate the host next year, the IOC announced on Wednesday.
By this decision of the IOC Executive Board meeting in Paris, France goes from “interested party” to “expected host” of the competition, even though Paris will already host the Summer Olympics in eight months.
The French Alps, which launched their candidacy last summer at the same time as Switzerland – Sweden having been in the running since February – must now go through several months of detailed evaluation of their file, from the map of sites to the planned legacy, through environmental impact, funding and political support.
Express campaign
The project, which ensures that it is based on 95% of existing sites, extends from Nice to Grand Bornand, nearly 500 km apart, with an alpine ski center on the sites of Courchevel-Méribel and Val d’Isère, the cross-country skiing in La Clusaz, and an Olympic village based in Nice, as are the skating events.
If the IOC executive considers the French guarantees sufficient, it will recommend its designation as host of the 2030 Olympics during a session next year – which should be that of Paris in July, just before the 2024 Olympics, announced Karl Stoss. This will, however, require first amending 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 “permanent dialogue”, that is to say restart the procedure from scratch, a hypothesis however unlikely in less than seven years. of the competition.
This new procedure, which turns its back on the traditional votes followed around the world to decide between candidates, has only been used once, to award the 2032 Olympic Games to the Australian city of Brisbane in 2021.
The French candidacy, mounted 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), therefore succeeded in an express campaign.
The project supported by the two French regions Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and endorsed by the Elysée this summer, successfully passed the obligatory milestones relating to the agenda set by the Olympic administration. Namely, the file submitted on time on November 7, and a thirty-minute grand oral on the 21st, in front of the members of the dedicated IOC commission, with the Minister of Sports accompanied by the two regional presidents Renaud Muselier, Laurent Wauquiez, and the president of the French Olympic committee David Lappartient.
“Awful”
However, she did not only have support. Environmental federations EELV had notably denounced this summer “a presidential guarantee which would go against zero net artificialization laws and which would make fun of water shortages, the Olympics leading to a phenomenal acceleration in the concreting of our beautiful mountains”.
The question of snow cover, which is weakening from year to year, as well as that of the paradox of investing massively in winter sports in the midst of global warming, are regularly raised by opponents.
“We are back for seven years of fighting and we will not give up,” reacted to AFP Stéphane Passeron, member of the No-JO collective and former high-level cross-country skier.
“There are going to be problems, there is a risk of being an uprising, a bad uprising. We cannot at the same time be in Dubai (COP 28, editor’s note), say that the world is collapsing and do that without any consultation, making a decision in six months which commits the economy of the Alps for thirty years, it’s not possible. It’s awful.”