Long time opponents of French Alps’ bid to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have planned a last minute protest to try to topple the project while it is vulnerable. Due to be ratified by International Olympic Committee (IOC) membership at a Session in Paris on July 24, the bid still needs to solidify elusive guarantees from an interim government.
The NO JO organization has planned a bicycle ride from proposed host region Grand Bornand to IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday (July 19) to ask those in charge of the Olympic Movement to cancel the bid. After meeting at 7:00am, organizers estimate the ride will take eight hours through the French Alps to the shores of Lake Geneva, arriving at at 3:00pm local time.
Once there, riders say they will ask for “the withdrawal of the French candidacy,” according to the group’s Facebook account.
“Its expiry must be officially and urgently requested and discussed with the IOC.”
But when the peloton arrives at Olympic House, they may find that its offices are empty. High level IOC members will instead be in Paris on the eve of their Executive Board meeting planned for Saturday at the heavily secured Hôtel du Collectionneur that will also serve as the Olympic Family Hotel during the Paris 2024 Games.
On the meeting’s agenda: the 2030 Olympic Winter Games bid.
The protestors claim not enough public consultation has taken place to validate the bid and climate change will make hosting the 2030 event unsustainable and without any useful legacy.
In April, NO JO spokesperson Stéphane Passeron told reporters “this application is the future vision that [the regional governors] have for the Alps, but it is not our vision.”
“There will be no snow anyway. They are deluding themselves. It’s nonsense. climate denial, nothing more, nothing less.”
Passeron and ecologist and lawyer Pierre Janot are leading the ride that has been timed as the bid committee faces another existential challenge just days before stakeholders are due to sign the host contract in the French capital.
Snap elections held July 7 across France delivered inconclusive results and politicians are scrambling to form a coalition government. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal saw his party fall to second place but was asked by President Emmanuel Macron to remain in his position in the interim to maintain stability. Attal’s ability to sign the required Games Delivery Guarantee may no longer be in effect without popular support and if a new coalition is formed before the July 24 deadline, the new stakeholders may not be willing to sign the guarantee promised by the former government.
The IOC’s Executive Board approved the French bid in June pending receipt of the signed guarantee that was already months overdue. At the time the IOC said it was confident it would receive the promised signatures after the July 7 election and prior to the planned final member ratification.
Election results put French Alps 2030 Winter Olympics at Risk. What happens next?
Now Renaud Muselier who is President of proposed host region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur says he is “very worried” about the situation.
When asked if President Macron can sign the document in the current political context Muselier told French business media outlet Gomet “I don’t know. It’s beyond me.”
Muselier has reportedly been in frequent contact with the President who is expected to meet with IOC president Thomas Bach Monday.
If the guarantee is not delivered by July 24, the French Alps cannot be elected at the Session.
That doesn’t mean the French Alps won’t eventually be awarded the Games, but the ratification vote will need to be pushed to a future Session. The next time all members are scheduled to gather is next year in Athens, Greece when the IOC will hold its own presidential election, but that may be too long to wait if France eventually delivers the required signatures.
Alternatively, the IOC could hold an earlier virtual extraordinary Session to elect French Alps 2030.
If the guarantees are signed in advance, on July 24 the French Alps bid will deliver a 30 minute presentation to over 100 IOC members at approximately 9:00am local time in Paris, followed by a question and answer period. A final ratification vote will follow.
