Featured image credit: IOC/Greg Martin
The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2030 and 2034 will be held in the French Alps and Salt Lake City-Utah, respectively, albeit with questions raised of both at today’s (Wednesday’s) IOC Session.
IOC members voted on the awards at the IOC Session in Paris, ahead of the French capital’s staging of this year’s Summer Games. Following Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo’s staging of the 2026 Winter Games, the next two editions of the event have been lined up for France and the United States for some time.
The IOC’s Executive Board (EB) last month proposed to the IOC Session the election of the French Alps and Salt Lake City-Utah, albeit with heavy provisos over the former amid the political instability in the country.
The IOC last month said that while French Alps 2030 had committed to deliver all outstanding guarantees prior to the IOC Session, these could not be finalised before the EB decision “due to the current political situation in France” as President Emmanuel Macron called surprise elections for June 30 and July 7.
The EB decision on French Alps 2030 was therefore subject to two key requirements being delivered on. Firstly, submission of the Games Delivery Guarantee by the French Government, and secondly, confirmation of a public partnership contribution to the Games organisation budget from the two regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the French Government.
Speaking at the IOC Session today, Macron said: “I confirm the full commitment of the French nation, and assure you that I will ask the next Prime Minister to include not only this guarantee but also an Olympic Law in the priorities of the new government. Seven years ago we made the same commitment, and we delivered. We will do the same.
“France pushes the limits of excellence every time it organises a sports event. We believe in the future of our mountains, and we need to support their model for the future: innovative, ambitious, mindful of ecological issues, and accessible by everyone.”
The vote saw 84 IOC members vote in favour of French Alps 2030, with four against and seven abstentions. IOC president Thomas Bach said the next French Prime Minister must provide the required guarantees by October 1, with the French Parliament needing to approve them by March 1, 2025.
Four venue hubs
French authorities in November presented their vision of a compact 2030 Games in the regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
News of a French Winter Olympics tilt first emerged in July 2023 as Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes united to propose a bid which focuses on four venue hubs for the Games.
Haute-Savoie has been earmarked for biathlon (Olympic and Paralympic) and cross-country skiing (Olympic and Paralympic); with Savoie proposed for alpine skiing (Olympic and Paralympic), ski jumping, Nordic combined, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.
Briançonnais has been lined up for freestyle skiing (Olympic and Paralympic), snowboard cross (Olympic) and para banked slalom. Nice Côte d’Azur is set to be the destination for ice hockey (Olympic and Paralympic), figure skating, short track skating, curling (Olympic and Paralympic), and ski and snowboard cross (Olympic).
France has staged the Winter Olympics on three previous occasions: in Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992. In November, the EB opened two Targeted Dialogues overseen by the Future Host Commission: one with the French Olympic and Paralympic Committees (CNOSF and CPSF) for the French Alps 2030, and the other with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) for Salt Lake City-Utah 2034.
A potential dual award of the editions of the Winter Games following Milan-Cortina 2026 was established in October as the IOC Session in Mumbai approved the principle of a double allocation by the Session in 2024, “should the appropriate conditions exist”. The EB made the proposal, citing concerns over climate change for its decision.
Salt Lake City-Utah’s long-term play
Salt Lake City’s bid team signalled its intent to shift focus from 2030 to the 2034 Games as far back as June 2022. A bid for the 2034 Games was viewed as the more realistic option for a number of reasons, including the challenges arising from the US hosting the Winter Olympics just two years after Los Angeles stages the 2028 Summer Games.
Salt Lake City held the Winter Olympics in 2002 and was selected by the USOPC over Denver, Colorado and Reno in Nevada as the US candidate for a future Winter Olympics back in 2018. The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games (SLC-UT) last month outlined a proposed 2034 Games core operating budget of over $2.83bn (£2.19bn/€2.61bn), adding it is expecting to generate just short of $4bn in revenue.
Along with Salt Lake City’s 2002 Games, the US has held the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid (1932 & 1980) and Squaw Valley (1960). Ahead of today’s vote, the Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 bid team was presented with backlash from IOC officials over the US Anti-Doping Agency’s vocal criticism of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s handling of the doping scandal in Chinese swimming. However, the bid was backed by 83 of IOC members, with six opposing and six abstaining.
Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 is planning one of the most compact Olympic Games in history, with all venues within a one-hour drive of the athletes’ village on the University of Utah campus. The plan requires no new permanent construction, with all 13 venues already in place and each having played a role during the 2002 Games.
Saudi seals Olympic Esports Games deal
In other news, the IOC has rubber-stamped a long-term deal that will see Saudi Arabia be the home of its new Olympic Esports Games concept.
The IOC Session in Paris yesterday (Tuesday) endorsed a proposal made by its Executive Board earlier this month. For the organisation of the Games, the IOC has partnered with the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Saudi Arabia for 12 years, with the first edition due in 2025.
Following yesterday’s decision, the IOC said work will begin immediately on selecting a city and venue for the inaugural edition of the Olympic Esports Games, along with the specific timing of the event, the titles to be included, the qualification process for the players and further details.
At the same time, the IOC will create a new dedicated structure within its organisation, clearly separated from the organisational and financial model for the Olympic Games. In order to address the specific nature of the Olympic Esports Games, the IOC said it will also take a different approach with regard to the financing and organisation of these Games.
The IOC has emphasised that International Federations already engaged in an e-version of their sport that is considered for inclusion in the Olympic Esports Games will be its “first go-to partners”. The same will be true for National Olympic Committees that already include esports in their activities.
The IOC has been engaging with esports since 2018. This culminated in the organisation of the Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in 2023. As a result of the success of this event, Bach asked the IOC Esports Commission at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India, in October to study the creation of the Olympic Esports Games.
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