Just days ahead of the launch of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris came the news that the International Olympic Committee has accepted a joint bid from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions to host the 2030 Winter Olympics.
It is official. In six years’ time, a confederations of towns, cities and alpine resorts in the Haute Savoie, Savoie, Briançon and Nice areas will come together to hold the 2030 Winter Olympics. It is the fourth time that the French Alps have been honoured as the hosts of the event, with the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville being the most recent visit to les alpes françaises.
Nice is set to host all of the indoor ice events, with the exception of speed skating, and has also been chosen as the location for the Games’ Closing Ceremony, which will be held on the Promenade des Anglais. It will be the first time in history that the occasion will be held outside of an official stadium.
Other sites selected by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board (IOC EB) for the Games include three old Albertville sites, which will be updated and renovated ahead of the event: La Plagne’s sliding track, the Courchevel ski jump and Méribel’s Roc de Fer downhill alpine skiing course.
The other proposed venues for snow events include La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre.
No decision has been made yet on the location of the Opening Ceremony, but it has been indicated that there will be a grand total of five Olympic Villages for the competing athletes and their teams across the two regions, with the promise that no competition venue will be more than half an hour from the athletes’ accommodation.
The organisers of the 2030 Winter Olympics plan to take a page from the 2024 Paris Olympics handbook when it comes to sustainability, with representatives saying that they will establish a “strategy that reduces carbon emissions and covers every aspect of Games’ planning and delivery, including transport, education and procurement”.
Dates confirmed for early 2030
The dates for the 2030 Winter Games have been confirmed by the IOC EB. The Olympics will be held between 1st and 17th February, while the Paralympic Games will take place between 1st and 10th March.
“Full confidence”
IOC President Thomas Bach was given the task of announcing the winners of the bid for the 2030 Winter Games on 24th July at an event in the French capital.
“President Macron and all stakeholders in French Alps 2030 have today reiterated their full commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2030,” he affirmed. “We have full confidence in France to organise an outstanding edition of the Olympic Winter Games, with the same creativity, imagination and flair we are currently experiencing at Paris 2024.”
Renaud Muselier, the President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, later said, “We are going to show the world that the 21st century will have its Winter Games: reinvented, simpler, less costly. Exemplary sustainable Games, snow and chalets! Games that will benefit our communities and all our citizens. Long live the French Alps, long live the Games!”
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Southern France confirmed as sole candidate for 2030 Winter Olympics
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Photo credit: IOC / Greg Martin