Eight months before the Paris Olympics, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, will come to Paris this week for a commission which will decide on the French Alps’ candidacy for the 2030 Winter Olympic Games (OG). .
Despite the proximity of this meeting to the Summer Olympics in France, it is the Winter Olympics which should be at the heart of the attention of this commission, which will be held in the French capital from Wednesday to Friday.
This is also the question that has been tormenting the French Olympic microcosm in recent weeks: will France succeed in making the pass of two?
After obtaining the organization of the Summer Olympics for 2024, it will know on Wednesday if it is still in the race to organize the Winter Olympics six years later. A decisive step.
“Large customers”
According to the IOC’s provisional program, the commission of the future host for these Winter Games will present its recommendations on Wednesday to the members of the executive board for the 2030 and 2034 editions.
Salt Lake City, which already organized the Winter Olympics in 2002, has made known “its preference for 2034”, and has no known competitor, assured Karl Stoss in mid-October in Mumbai (India), the president Austrian member of this commission.
The Swiss, French and Swedish candidatures therefore remain in the running for 2030, “three big clients”, according to a source close to the French Olympic movement.
The IOC will choose whether or not to enter a “dialogue phase” with one or more candidates, officially meaning for the candidate(s) excluded from this dialogue, the end of the dream. A decision particularly awaited on the French side, the president of the French Olympic Committee, David Lappartient, having multiplied the declarations expressing his “confidence” in the success of the project carried out by the two French regions, Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes and Provence -Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
“Clearly, if they are not chosen, it would be a bit of a slap in the face. The French file is solid, but so are the other two. It could be tight,” predicts this source close to the Olympic movement. A few rare voices were raised timidly in France.
But Thomas Bach’s visit to Paris cannot be dissociated from the Paris Olympics, which should constitute much more than a backdrop for the German leader during his visit.
Transportation controversy
The IOC President will indeed land in Paris in the midst of a controversy on the very sensitive subject of transport, and a fairly tough battle in the upper echelons. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has in fact thrown a huge spanner in the works by asserting on Wednesday that Ile-de-France transport will not be “ready” for the Olympics. A sting which triggered the ire of the regional president, Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, and the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, cracking the sacred union – admittedly fragile – which had reigned for several months around the Olympics.
“Shameful” comments, “political betrayal”, for Clément Beaune, “politician politics behind the Olympics” for Amélie Oudéa-Castéra… The atmosphere between the Parisian councilor and the members of the government seems icy, in the midst of preparations for these OJ.
Thomas Bach should discuss it with Anne Hidalgo fairly quickly: the IOC president must inaugurate the new Olympic look of the city hall on Tuesday evening with the mayor of Paris, but also with Tony Estanguet, the head of the Olympic Committee. organization of the Olympic Games.
For the rest, Thomas Bach’s agenda contains many questions. Apart from his announced presence at a summit of Olympic cities at the Pullman Tour Eiffel hotel at the start of the week, and a very probable visit to the Olympic village on Friday, nothing has filtered out on a possible meeting with Emmanuel Macron, who he had encountered during a visit in June.