The matter seemed to be over. It probably isn't quite anymore. Rejected last month from the French Alps file for the Winter Games in 2030, the resort of Val d'Isère could return to the scene. And even, perhaps, find a more visible place.

Recall of facts. Last November, the IOC Executive Board, meeting for two days in Paris, announced the winners of the race for the Winter Games. The French Alps have been chosen to continue the adventure, in the “ targeted dialogue », for the 2030 edition. The Americans from Salt Lake City inherit the same privilege for the following Games. Switzerland is retained, but for a new and more uncertain stage of “ privileged dialogue », for the Games in 2038. Sweden remains empty-handed.

In the French Alps file, Val d'Isère is planned to host the two alpine ski slaloms, men's and women's. A logical choice. A form of evidence.

Surprise, the Savoyard resort will soon be wiped off the map. Like Isola 2000 in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, it was sacrificed at the request of the IOC. The Olympic body wants to see the French project reduce the number of its sites. It wants it more compact.

Jean-Claude Killy, the former co-president of the Albertville Games in 1992, honorary member of the IOC, does not appreciate the maneuver. He says it in his own way, without taking any gloves off. His open letter caused a lot of noise.

Enough to reverse the course of history? In Val d’Isère, the mayor of the resort, Patrick Martin, is not giving up. He took advantage of the start of the controversy to try to put his town back on the Games map.

In mid-December, he formed a team to respond in a few weeks to the request from Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (AURA), to present a technical file detailing the technical and economic feasibility of a maintaining Val d'Isère in the application file.

Without real specifications, the Val d’Isère team gets to work. In less than a month, she produced a file of around forty pages, excluding annexes, meeting the IOC's requirements in terms of sobriety, athlete experience and cost control.

According to Ski Chrono, the document was given this week to Vincent Jay, the operational director of the 2030 Winter Games in the AURA region, with a copy to David Lappartient, the president of the CNOSF, Antoine Dénériaz, the president of the Olympic and Paralympic Games commission in the region, and Jean-Claude Killy.

The argument turns out to be solid. Val d’Isère offers to accommodate athletes at Club Med, a few minutes’ ski ride from the event site. The station is considering cable transport from the bottom of the valley. Above all, his file imagines bringing together technical alpine skiing events. The two giants would compete on the Face de Bellevarde, one of the tracks of the Albertville Games in 1992. The slaloms would be run on the Joseray. A common finish area would be provided for the four races.

The budget ? “ We are at 16,6 million euros, explained Patrick Martin to Ski Chrono. But it remains evolving. If we return to the CNOSF game plan, we will have to adapt. »

Last week, a team of four experts from the Winter Games Future Host Commission traveled to the French Alps for a three-day reconnaissance visit. It was planned. The delegation sent by Lausanne stopped in Courchevel, La Cluzaz, La Plagne and the Hautes-Alpes. But she ignored Val d’Isère and Isola 2000.

Six months before the IOC session, where the choice of the French Alps as host of the Winter Games in 2030 must be validated, everything remains possible. The argument prepared by Val d’Isère will be included in the AURA part of the file sent to the CNOSF. A summary document will then be sent, before the end of February, to the IOC Future Host Commission. With or without Val d’Isère? Response in the coming weeks.