France & USA set to host Olympics
The Olympic Winter Games appear set for France and the United States of America in 2030 and 2034 respectively.
The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) executive board has recommended France and the USA for the two Games immediately following the next instalment in Italy in 2026, with a vote to approve the bids due to take place at the IOC session in Paris on July 24th.
The French Alps is the proposed venue for the 2030 Games and Salt Lake City is the likely venue four years later.
Although no decision on the track itself has yet been made public for the sliding sports element of either Games, France already has a bobsleigh, skeleton and luge facility in La Plagne and Utah in the US is home to Park City, which last hosted a World Cup race the season before last.
“The Future Host Commission is confident that these two preferred hosts represent a great opportunity for successful and sustainable Olympic Winter Games," said Karl Stoss, leader of the IOC's Future Host Commission.
As the first Olympic Winter Games editions to align with Olympic Agenda 2020 from planning to delivery, both projects would achieve significant social, economic and environmental benefits for their host communities, while building on their existing expertise in hosting international winter sports competitions.
“These are two very exciting projects, and two very different projects, which clearly demonstrate that there is no one-size-fits-all model to host Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
France hosted World Cup competition this season
The French bid must provide a ‘Games delivery guarantee’ prior to the IOC session in July after President Macron called a snap general election that has created political uncertainty in the country. The IOC are also seeking official confirmation of a public partnership between the two regions of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur and the French government in terms of Games finances.
France hosts the Summer Olympics this year but the last Winter Games in the country were back in Albertville in 1992. They previously hosted the Games in Grenoble in 1968 and the very first Winter Olympics in Chamonix 100 years ago.
The USA has been the IOC’s chosen venue on four occasions to date, with the most recent Games also being in Salt Lake City in 2002, when Alex Coomber won bronze for Great Britain on Skeleton’s return to the Olympics.
America previously hosted the biggest spectacle in the winter sports world in Lake Placid (1932 and 1980) and Squaw Valley (1960).
Salt Lake City was initially set to rival the French Alps for the 2030 Games but they withdrew from the running due to its proximity to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
