The clock is ticking fast, the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are not far off. The excitement of this event is gradually building... And it may not subside anytime soon. France has applied to host the 2030 Winter Games. More specifically, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions have put themselves forward as candidates to host the next Games in the French Alps.
France therefore applied to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2030 Games, ahead of Sweden and Switzerland. On Wednesday November 29, 2023, the IOC announced that only the French Alps' bid had been selected after a review of the applications. The region and the Committee will now begin discussions to assess the feasibility of staging such an event. The IOC's final decision will be made during 2024, but it is highly likely that the French bid will be definitively validated.
Karl Stoss, IOC member and Chairman of the Future Host Commission, explains in the columns of Le Monde: " France has a long tradition of winter sports and of organizing major winter sports events. " His colleague, Christophe Dubi, Executive Director of the Olympic Games at the IOC, adds: " Popular support for the Games is incredibly strong in France (...) I have rarely seen support like this. "
At the press conference on November 29, 2023, reported by France Info, Karl Stoss also added: "The positive points of the French Alps bid are the promise of sustainable tourism in the region, the presence of as many venues as possible, in addition to the structures and experience of Paris 2024 ." The idea of using mainly existing competition venues in the Alps, the presence and support of sponsors for the Paris 2024 Games, and the importance of this event for the region's economy all played in favor of the French bid.
On social networks, the CNOSF (French National Olympic and Sports Committee) presented the future Olympic venues for these Winter Games, as envisaged in the bid file. The events would be scattered between Haute-Savoie and the Côte d'Azur.
🗺️Découvrez the proposed venues map for the #AlpesFrançaises bid! pic.twitter.com/OgEN12V3Vb
- FranceOlympique (@FranceOlympique) November 7, 2023
If the bid is successful, France will host the Winter Games for the fourth time, following on from Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992. In the meantime, athletes are preparing for the 2026 edition of the Games, to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
