As part of this weekend’s Critérium de la Première Neige, stage of the men’s World Cup (before the passage of the women’s World Cup next week), Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, on Ski Chrono, defended the place of Val d’Isère (for slaloms) on the map of sites for the 2030 Winter Olympics: “I wanted Val d’Isère to be in our application file. Many people advised me against it. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. Afterwards, we are not going to lie to ourselves, we clearly know that this is not the wish of the IOC. The whole purpose of the targeted dialogue is to continue this discussion until the final version of the file in June. We must understand the IOC’s arguments. They want less expensive Games. An Olympic site costs 60 to 80 million euros. They want environmentally virtuous Games. More sites mean more journeys and therefore a poorer carbon footprint. Our arguments are to say that Val d’Isère is the Mecca of alpine skiing, it is the history of skiing. Where discipline emerged. A resort that has produced great Olympic champions. A station which has a strong habit of organizing competitions. She showed it with the world championships and she shows it regularly with the Critérium de la Première neige, of which I remind you that the Region is the first partner.”
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