When Renaud Muselier, the president of France’s Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, visited Olympic facilities in Utah more than a year ago, he insisted the French Alps would be ready to host the 2030 Winter Games.
“All the things cannot be perfect because we go very fast. But we will be ready,” Muselier declared to reporters at the Utah Olympic Park near Park City several months before the final decision giving France Winter Games for 2030, and Utah, for 2034.
Now, though, France’s plans for a 2030 Olympics may be changing to include events held in other European countries.
“Speed skating ‘too expensive’ to take place in France," was the headline Thursday according to a translation of the post on FrancsJeux.com, a French language website that follows the Olympics and international sport.
The post was based on an interview Muselier gave the French daily newspaper Le Figaro earlier in the week, where he made it clear the 2030 Winter Games speedskating events won’t be held in France.
“No. It’s too expensive — around 50 million euros (nearly $55 million)– and it’s not usable. So we’re going to find a solution, and Edgar (Grospiron, 2030 organizing committee president) is going to Holland and Italy to see what we can do with them," he said, according to a translation.
The leader of the French southern region said it’s the organizers who want to hold events in another country, even though the International Olympic Committee previously raised the possibility of moving speedskating to the Netherlands or Italy.
“In any case, the IOC isn’t imposing anything on us,” Muselier told Le Figaro. “We have to reinvent the Games. That’s what’s interesting.”
The French Riviera city of Nice along France’s southern coast is set to hold ice sports, but the IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, said a year ago there were a number of different options for long-track speedskating, which requires a 400-meter oval track.
In addition to looking outside France, Dubi had suggested a temporary track could be built in Nice. That’s what’s being done for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, after the IOC rejected a proposal for installing a $54 million roof over an existing outdoor track.
The IOC is increasingly focused on sustainability. Utah’s successful bid to host in 2034 emphasized using venues from the 2002 Winter Games, like the speedskating track at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.
The French Alps bid was a late entry into the race for the 2030 Winter Games, causing some speculation that the IOC might have to turn to Utah if France’s bid fell through. Utah was bidding to host in either 2030 or 2034, with a preference for the later date.