2023-10-25 17:10:00
“Everyone made fun of me a year and a half ago when I launched the idea of bidding for the Winter Olympics in the South!” says Renaud Muselier. Then adds, with a big smile: “I’m going with caution, but imagine, we’re not in a bad place!” And earlier than expected. If the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Region targeted 2034 or 2038, the objective was brought closer by four years following a combination of circumstances and a rapprochement with the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, chaired by Laurent Wauquiez.
This union between a pure and an ex LR is described as “implausible” by Muselier himself, who specifies having “met Laurent to share the events”, before a meeting with the management of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), at Lausanne at the beginning of September. “If we win the Games, he will have the jump, the skeleton, or even the bobsleigh. We will have other disciplines, underlines the boss of the South Region. It’s 50/50. One will have the opening ceremony, the other the closing one. There remains the question of who will host the Olympic village. The discussions are tight but we are not in a game of lying poker. Especially since Wauquiez knows my limits! There will be no dirty tricks between us.”
Stop or still?
It is up to this improbable duo to send a final file on November 7, before a grand oral two weeks later. With a crucial first return by the beginning of December. “We want to do the same Olympics as Lillehammer in 94: chalets and snow,” continues Renaud Muselier, who plans to have additional resources in terms of infrastructure and transport. For him, “connecting Briançon to Marseille in 5 hours is not possible”.
If he anticipates “technical, financial and administrative difficulties”, Muselier wants to believe in his “very good file”. With the exception of the mayor of Barcelonnette Sophie Vaginay-Ricourt, he assures that he has “all the elected officials” with him, as well as those “from the economic and sporting world”. With one objective: to leave its mark for years to come. And why not be there in 2030.
In the meantime, the French candidacy finds itself facing that of Switzerland and that of Sweden. In the best case scenario, formalization might take place at the end of the Summer Olympic Games. At the latest, the end of 2024. In other words tomorrow, or almost.
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