The horizon is brightening. The Organizing Committee for the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games is due to officially be launched in February, five years before the big event in the French Alps. The race for the post of COJOP president has been in full swing for several months, with three former athletes on the starting line: Martin Fourcade, Vincent Jay and Marie Martinod. According to information from Le Dauphiné, the name of the chosen one will be announced on February 3, in Lyon. And barring any last-minute twists, the announced favorite should pocket the stake.
The Michel Barnier effect
Martin Fourcade will indeed be designated according to Challenges, which explains that "Michel Barnier's mediation helped to unblock his nomination". The Catalan is an authority with his six Olympic titles. No one, not even Teddy Riner (five gold medals), has done better in the history of French sport. A respected athlete, well identified by the general public, who enjoys a positive image. A profile like Tony Estanguet, therefore. When Fourcade speaks, people listen. All the more so with his experience as president of the Paris 2024 athletes' commission. Michel Barnier, co-president of the 1992 Albertville COJO, has therefore probably succeeded in warding off opposition, notably from Laurent Wauquiez, the former president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who is not a big fan of Fourcade's profile.
The Haute-Loire MP would have preferred Vincent Jay according to several echoes, and for good reason: the region hired the former biathlete in September 2023 as project director for the candidacy for the 2030 Olympic Games. A collaboration that is still relevant. The Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life Marie Barsacq visited the Rousses resort on January 17. Vincent Jay and Martin Fourcade were also there. But the six-time Olympic champion seems to have managed to break away since then.
Marie Bochet as lieutenant
The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) will publish its report on the risks of conflicts of interest of candidates on January 28. The goal: to allow the COJOP to work with complete peace of mind. Retired since 2020, Fourcade did not display any particular concern about his situation in an interview with L'Equipe in October: "The two long-term partnerships that I can have are with technical brands which, in my opinion, are not in contradiction with the partnership issues of the organizing committee, Rossignol and Odlo."
Barring any nasty surprises, he will be the one taking the reins of the Alpes 2030 project in a few days, with Marie Bochet as his lieutenant. Fourcade had rightly mentioned the name of the eight-time Paralympic alpine ski champion in the columns of L'Equipe, assuming his desire to see her on the front line "because she has supported this candidacy from the beginning"Their priorities, according to the former biathlete's statements: “mobilize private actors” and “initiate discussions with the main partners of Paris 2024” to advance the financing file, on the one hand, and “to sit down collectively to refine the project”, which will involve, for example, making choices on competition sites and ceremonies.
