2023-11-30 15:14:24
” Pride. » This is the word that came up most often in the mouths of those involved in the French bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics after the announcement, at the end of the day on Wednesday, November 29, of the decision of the International Olympic Committee (CIO) to favor the only tricolor file for a “targeted dialogue”prelude to the final choice of the body in July 2024.
There are therefore seven months left to prove the IOC right, which selected the French Alps project to the detriment of those of Switzerland and Sweden. Seven months to confirm, and without dawdling. Because the next step for the promoters of the great white in blue is already on the horizon: it is from February 2024 that they will have to submit the complete application file.
The speed ring, first emergency
The first emergency concerns the ice ring for the speed skating events, the only equipment missing from the current file. As no permanent constructions other than an ice rink for artistic competitions in Nice are envisaged, two solutions are being studied.
The first would be to transfer the speed test abroad. Contacts have already been made, but the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, which is in charge of this affair, remains discreet on this chapter for the moment.
The second hypothesis is the construction of a temporary structure. This was the choice of Albertville in 1992, for a cost still equivalent to 5.5 million euros at the time. The track and its grandstand, the last in Olympic history designed outdoors, was then converted into an athletics track surrounding a football or rugby field.
Another location to be resolved is that of the snowboard site for the Paralympic Games. The French Paralympic and Sports Committee explained that its installation could not be common to the Games sites. The body also intends to limit the spread of Paralympic events, and perhaps settle for an establishment in three centers and not four (Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Briançonnais and Nice), as for the Olympic Games.
Clearing up the budgetary vagueness
In March 2024, the promoters of the Games will also have to present political and financial guarantees to the IOC. The first are acquired, the government and the President of the Republic are already pushing hard for the French candidacy. Opposition to the event, even if environmental issues are sure to enter the debates over time, is limited for the moment.
The question of cost, however, is more vague. The next Italian Winter Games in Milan-Cortina in 2026 have a budget of 1.5 billion euros for the organizing committee, and nearly 3 billion for the investment of the State and local authorities in the required infrastructure.
Essential architect of the candidacy with Renaud Muselier, president of the Paka region, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region swears he wants to avoid “waste of public money”, and highlights the involvement of 17 Paris 2024 partners who have already signed a letter of intent. Still, the subject of mobility and transport, at Games with relatively scattered sites, promises a major headache.
The IOC Future Host Commission will already be able to get an idea of the necessary improvements by visiting the sites in April 2024, before drafting and submitting its final report in June, on which the IOC Executive Board will decide. It is on his opinion that the IOC, meeting for its 142nd session in Paris in July 2024, will vote for good. If the French application is validated, it will subsequently be necessary to embody it. With Martin Fourcade in the role of Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024? Concentrated for the moment on his show (on tour until the end of March), the ex-biathlete with five gold medals questioned on Wednesday about this possibility said neither yes nor no. But going on that stage doesn’t displease him.
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