While the French Alps candidacy is being structured and will unveil its plans to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on November 7, it is clear that the current development of the project is taking place with the omnipresence of the regional political sphere. If institutional support is a strength for a project of this scale, the sporting dimension and popular support are also parameters to be considered carefully.
From left to right, Christophe de Kepper, Director General of the International Olympic Committee; Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Region; Thomas Bach, IOC President; Laurent Wauquiez, President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region; and David Lappartient, President of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, Thursday September 7, 2023 at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland (Credits – IOC / Greg Martin)
From 2021, the hypothesis of a French candidacy for the organization of a next edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was put forward.
From Laurent Wauquiez to Renaud Muselier, the Presidents of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Regions had taken turns discussing the possibility of presenting a project in the dynamic of preparations for Paris 2024.
Then the simple hypothesis gradually transformed into concrete reflection, with the encouragement expressed by Guy Drut, former Minister of Sports and member of the IOC, to merge intentions and build the foundations of a candidacy encompassing the two territories. regional.
The tipping point then occurred in the summer of 2023, through a working meeting at the Élysée Palace, in the presence of the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games and Paralympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, as well as the President of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), David Lappartient. The two aforementioned regional councilors were also present for this meeting marking the official launch of the candidacy.
Today, the project based on the French Alps is preparing to take – or not – the next steps set by the Olympic institution. This will first involve the submission of the technical project and the mapping of the sites, on November 7, 2023, then by a grand oral orchestrated on November 21.
If the IOC Future Host Commission is in fine seduced by the French proposal, she could recommend continuing the adventure as part of the phase of “targeted dialogue”. The IOC Executive Commission will decide on this at its next meeting expected in Paris from November 28 to December 1.
In the event that the French file is accepted, the official designation of the Host of the 2030 Olympic Games will not take place before sometime in 2024, during a Session whose location must be determined by the Lausanne institution. (Swiss).
Karl Stoss, President of the Future Host Commission, at the podium of the 141st IOC Session, in Bombay, India, Sunday October 15, 2023 (Credits – IOC / Greg Martin)
Although the application process has been profoundly overhauled in recent years, in particular with the elimination of the request and application phases, the introduction instead of a continuous dialogue then a targeted dialogue, and the absence of drama for the unveiling of the Future Host, the IOC is attentive to certain aspects.
In fact, the institution encourages applicants to submit projects that meet the requirements of sustainability and sobriety which are now more widely considered. If in the past, territories had to adapt to the Games, the paradigm has now changed, at least in appearance.
Also, projects must maximize the use of already existing or temporary sites, and on the contrary minimize the need for new installations.
Sometimes complex, this change is particularly at work on the side of Milan-Cortina 2026, with the recent cancellation of the project to reconstruct the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track in Cortina d’Ampezzo and the promised use of a site existing outside the Italian borders. Likewise, the speed skating events will take place at the Milan fair around a temporary ring, while part of the ice hockey competitions will also take place within the Exhibition Center of the Lombard city.
In terms of applications, the use of existing sites is also noted, like the Swiss application which promotes the mobilization of sites throughout Switzerland in a unique concept of “Host Country”with the probable participation of sites in Germany or the Netherlands, or the Swedish project which should secure the integration of Latvia, particularly for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events.
On the French side, association with a European partner is not excluded, the question of speed skating being in fact to be resolved.
View of the 1992 Olympic cauldron and the Albertville Olympic ice rink (Credits – CoRAL)
Beyond the problem of the concept and the cartography, the IOC is also attentive to the construction of the candidatures and the support which the contenders can benefit from.
On this point, the latter must both garner the support of the national sports movement, the commitment of institutional authorities, from the local to the national level, without forgetting of course the support of the population.
However, for France, the structuring of the candidacy seems to be based more on the political sphere than on the sporting dimension. At least at this point.
An example illustrates this observation: the officialization of the candidacy was orchestrated during the summer at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Palace, certainly with the assistance of national sports authorities. In June 2015, the official unveiling of the Paris 2024 candidacy took place at the CNOSF headquarters itself, with the participation of several dozen athletes, including certain tricolor glories who have left their mark on French sport.
At the time, the development of the candidacy had been carefully considered and had been the result of a symbiosis between the sporting sphere and the political sphere, all under the aegis of Bernard Lapasset and Tony Estanguet. One figure to talk to politicians, another to talk to athletes. Together above all to carry one and the same message.
Today, putting the French Alps’ candidacy into orbit is more akin to the pursuit of a political goal aimed at accelerating the development of the Alpine territory, particularly on the issues of opening up the valleys by transport.
An ambition captured on the fly by the CNOSF which has been trying since this summer to find a way to ensure piloting. A strange feeling of déjà vu. As in 2010-2011 when the winter candidacy for 2018 was precipitated by territorial ambitions before being carried as best it could by a quickly overwhelmed CNOSF.
At present, the few interventions relating to the candidacy for the 2030 Olympic Games in recent weeks have mainly been the work of the two Presidents of the Regions concerned, each hammering home or allowing the message of a political project to shine through.
As proof, the recent interview with Renaud Muselier for the regional daily “Provence”.
As stated by the President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Region:
Half of the competitions will take place in our region, the other half there. That’s the deal. Half the medals on top, half here. It is a political agreement.
We have already gotten angry in the past, on other occasions, with Laurent Wauquiez, but there is a higher interest here. We work together, there is not a sheet of paper between us.
[…] We have the support of the President of the Republic, at a time when we are signing the State-Region Plan Contracts. And with Laurent Wauquiez, we got along”.
For his part, the President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region took advantage of the inclusion of a deliberation on the subject of the candidacy for the 2030 Olympic Games on the agenda of the Plenary Assembly, Friday October 20, 2023, to advance his pawns, without ever mentioning his counterpart.
Martin Fourcade officially inducted as a member of the IOC by President Thomas Bach, during the 139th IOC Session organized in Beijing, China, on February 19, 2022 (Credits – IOC / Greg Martin)
The future distribution of sites between the north and south of the French Alps promises to be a perfect balancing act. To maintain the unity of the candidacy, concessions must be put on the table and the slightest suspicion of tensions must be resolved without delay.
In the race for the 2030 Olympics – and all things considered – this rivalry between territories and political leaders has recently led to the fall of the Spanish candidacy which was to highlight the legacy of the 1992 Barcelona Games with the beauty of the Pyrenean landscapes between Catalonia and Aragon.
However, the two entities have never managed to agree on the role of each and the sharing of responsibilities, despite the investment of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and its President, Alejandro Blanco, to achieve to a sacred union in the interest of Olympic and Paralympic ambition.
Concerning the French candidacy, the sequence of the next deadlines should lead to an overcoming of egos and to the more pronounced affirmation of the Sports Movement.
Even if the context has evolved within the IOC, the embodiment of a candidacy and a project remains a certain anchor point, in particular vis-à-vis public opinion which will always be more attached to such project to a sporting figure rather than a leader policy.
In this regard, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region has started to prepare a directional organization chart, with the appointment to the position of Project Director of the candidacy of Vincent Jay, Olympic Champion in sprint and bronze medalist in pursuit during the Vancouver 2010 Games.
For the future, it is possible to imagine that the candidacy of the French Alps could be embodied by a leader like Martin Fourcade who, with his five Olympic gold medals, is the most successful French athlete in the history of the Winter and Summer Games combined.
It remains to be seen whether the very young retiree from the biathlon tracks – member of the IOC since 2022 – will be interested in such a challenge. It also remains to be seen whether the political world will so easily leave center stage to an athlete, however popular he may be.
