After having selected the French Alps on Wednesday as the only candidates to host the 2030 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will “refine everything” but its final decision appears “already made”, explains Jean-Loup Chappelet to AFP , specialist in Olympics at the University of Lausanne.
Were you surprised by the French victory? “Sweden, already very close to the 2026 Olympics against Milan-Cortina, had never organized a Winter Games and the geographical rotation could have benefited Scandinavia. But I understood better when I saw the political support for the French file, including the Élysée, while the Swedish government and the city of Stockholm paid lip service to the candidacy, and Switzerland offered no political guarantee. Furthermore, Paris is already organizing the Summer Games in 2024 so its teams can very easily be transferred to the preparation of the Winter Games, and some of the sponsors have shown interest in continuing. Finally, the French Alps already have two of the three facilities that pose the most problems to build and maintain, a legacy of the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville: the luge-bobsleigh track of La Plagne and the ski jumps of Courchevel. There remains the speed skating oval, but it can be set up in a large hall.”
The “targeted dialogue” has only been used once, to award the 2032 Olympics to the Australian city of Brisbane in 2021: what will it consist of? “The IOC will refine everything until March, from the site map to logistics and financing, and visit from April. For the sites, the Savoie center with alpine skiing, luge-bobsleigh and ski jumping will inevitably remain, as will Nice for at least part of the ice events. But “secondary” centers such as Nordic in La Clusaz-Le Grand Bornand or freestyle skiing in Briançonnais can still move if access proves difficult. Furthermore, the IOC will realize that the Acropolis of Nice where figure skating and short track are planned is in destruction and will be able to suggest another ice rink, especially since it is an event which attracts people and requires at least 8,000 to 10,000 places, while Nice must build two other ice rinks for hockey. Finally, to clarify the budget (for the moment planned at 1.6 billion euros of private funds without evaluation of public subsidies, editor’s note), the possibility of continuing with sponsors of Paris-2024 is interesting. They will have to make way for Milan-Cortina in the next two years, but that will allow contracts to be negotiated and activated from 2026.
Is it imaginable that the French Alps will not be designated in July 2024 and that the procedure will start from scratch? “No, the decision has almost been made, especially since for political guarantees, the IOC will trust the word given. There is no risk of a referendum in France, unlike in Switzerland. They will deal with the remaining uncertainties, especially since the award will take place two days before the opening of the 2024 Olympics in Paris: it will go like a letter in the post.”
