“It’s a great joy. I’m just happy to have been able to contribute to this candidacy and to have managed to convince the IOC to trust us. Above all, I am very happy to be able to imagine that a generation of French athletes will be able to look forward to a not-so-distant deadline with stars in their eyes. It is a great pleasure to be able to offer them this. From now on we will enter a new phase with the start of a targeted dialogue with the IOC in order to continue to refine our file and perfect it.
I am also very satisfied that France will be able to launch, in a certain way, the Winter Olympic Games tomorrow. It is a global event which, in the context in which we live, is sometimes questioned. I am convinced that we have a great responsibility to offer games very different from those in which I was able to participate as an athlete, whether in Sochi or in Pyeongchang. They were incredible Games but which no longer respond to current environmental and social issues. To be able to contribute to writing this history and shaping a model in which I deeply believe, it is an immense pride and I took a lot of pleasure in this application phase.
“Everything happened very quickly, it’s true. Since 2020, the method of awarding the Games has clearly evolved in the right direction with first of all a permanent dialogue between the countries and the IOC, which avoids significant application fees, as well as lengthy files. This double phase of permanent, then targeted, dialogue is going in the right direction.”
“Experiencing the Games at home is magical. I would have loved to have been able to experience that as an athlete. I fought for this in 2011 in Durban during Annecy’s bid for the 2018 Games but we did not experience such success. This is why today’s announcement is all the more welcome.
We have real know-how in terms of organization but also a real audience which accompanies the athletes all year round on World Cup classics. It is this know-how and this atmosphere that we want to promote.”
“Quite honestly, it’s a reflection that I haven’t yet made. I’m not going to deny that the subject has been brought up to me several times but I have been very busy with a personal matter, namely the launch of my show which will continue until the end of winter. So I am very happy to have been able to contribute to this progress of the project, which I intend to continue to do. In what role? We will see that.”
