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French Alpine regions ponder bid for 2030 Winter Olympics

The two administrative regions of the French Alps stretching down to the Riviera have announced plans to present a French bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Published: 19 July 2023 08:44 CEST

French Alpine regions ponder bid for 2030 Winter Olympics

France is considering a bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, along with the Comité national olympique et sportif français (CNOSF), “have come together to consider” this candidacy, they said in a press release.

The aim is to arrive at a collective decision by mid-September.

CNOSF president David Lappartient welcomed, “a great opportunity to continue the momentum of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”.

“Together, we must imagine the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of the future in the context of global warming,” he continued.

“Games that respect balance, Games that promote transitions in the mountain world, economical Games and popular Games. It is this challenge that we are
ready to take up.”

Sweden are interested in hosting the 2030 Games after losing out to Milan-Cortina for 2026, with 2002 hosts Salt Lake City also in the running.

France have hosted the Winter Olympics three times — Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992.

Paris organised the Summer Olympics in 1900 and 1924, and will host next year’s Games.

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Olympic torch sets sail at start of its voyage to France

“The feelings are so exceptional. It’s such an emotion for me”, Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the departure of the ship from Piraeus.

He hailed the “great coincidence” how the Belem was launched just weeks after the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.

“These games mean a lot. It’s been a centenary since the last time we organised the Olympic games in our country,” he added.

The 19th-century three-masted boat set sail on a calm sea but under cloudy skies.

It was accompanied off the port of Piraeus by the trireme Olympias of the Greek Navy and 25 sailing boats while dozens of people watched behind railings for security reasons.

“We came here so that the children understand that the Olympic ideal was born in Greece. I’m really moved,” Giorgos Kontopoulos, who watched the ship starting its voyage with his two children, told AFP.

On Sunday, the ship will pass from the Corinth Canal — a feat of 19th century engineering constructed with the contribution of French banks and engineers.

‘More responsible Games’

The Belem is set to reach Marseille — where a Greek colony was founded in around 600 BCE — on May 8.

Over 1,000 vessels will accompany its approach to the harbour, local officials have said.

French swimmer Florent Manaudou will be the first torch bearer in Marseille. His sister Laure was the second torch bearer in ancient Olympia, where the flame was lit on April 16.

Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.

It will travel through more than 450 towns and cities, and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

It will then reach Paris and be the centre piece of the hugely imaginative and new approach to the Games opening ceremony.

Instead of the traditional approach of parading through the athletics stadium at the start of the Games, teams are set to sail down the Seine on a flotilla of boats in front of up to 500,000 spectators, including people watching from nearby buildings.

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

Greece on Friday had handed over the Olympic flame of the 2024 Games, at a ceremony, to Estanguet.

Hellenic Olympic Committee chairman Spyros Capralos handed the torch to Estanguet at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Olympics were held in 1896.

Estanguet said the goal for Paris was to organise “spectacular but also more responsible Games, which will contribute towards a more inclusive society.”

Organisers want to ensure “the biggest event in the world plays an accelerating role in addressing the crucial questions of our time,” said Estanguet, a member of France’s Athens 2004 Olympics team who won gold in the slalom canoe event.

A duo of French champions, Beijing 2022 ice dance gold medallist Gabriella Papadakis and former swimmer Beatrice Hess, one of the most successful Paralympians in history, carried the flame during the final relay leg into the Panathenaic Stadium.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, sang the French and Greek anthems at the ceremony.

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