Olympics Unveil Alpes 2030 Venue Masterplan

Preparations for the 2030 Alpes Winter Olympics have been anything but smooth thus far. Multiple leadership changes, governance issues, and tight deadlines have left the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Alpes 2030 Organizing Committee scrambling to find some sort of consistency in the planning process. But with the Olympics’ recent announcement, it seems the 2030 Alpes leadership is finally making some solid progress.

The IOC and 2030 Alpes Organizing Committee recently unveiled the official sports venue masterplan for the 2030 Alpes Winter Olympics. The release of the plan comes after months of deliberation and last-minute venue shifts initiated by the committees. But now, with the sports venue plan finally set, both the organizers and athletes have some stability and the committees can begin focusing on the finer details ahead of the competition three-and-a-half years from now.

“Through this week’s site visits, discussions, presentations and decisions, we have seen the Organising Committee make real progress across every part of the project, supported by its delivery partners, the IOC, the International Paralympic Committee and the wider Olympic and Paralympic Movements,” Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant said. “These Games now have a clear vision, a striking visual identity, a compelling sports programme, an optimised venue plan and solid economic foundations. The teams are growing and gaining strength, and they are well placed to move from strategy to detailed operational planning and engagement.”

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The most significant detail of the masterplan is the location of the Games’ ice sports. They were initially set to be held in Nice, France, at the city’s Allianz Riviera soccer stadium. However, Nice’s newly elected mayor, Éric Ciotti, refused to allow the Games to turn the stadium into a temporary ice rink. Following visits by the Coordination Commission, the IOC Executive Board approved the relocation of ice sports to Lyon, France.

Ice hockey will be played at the arena in Décines-Charpieu, which is also hosting the 2028 Ice Hockey World Championships. In addition to Décines-Charpieu, some ice hockey games will be played at he historic Hall Tony Garnier. The Eurexpo convention centre and its exhibition halls will host curling, figure skating and short track speed skating, along with the Main Media Center.

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The only ice sport held outside of Lyon will be speed skating — and it’s taking place in an entirely different country. The Netherlands’ Thialf arena in Heerenveen will host the speed skating competition. The designation of the Netherlands as the speed skating host is fitting, given the country’s status as the sport’s powerhouse.

• Related: Freeride Skiing and Snowboarding to Debut at 2030 Winter Olympics

As they have in the past three Winter Olympics, skiing and snowboarding disciplines will be split up into multiple different locations across the French Alpine region. In the mountains of the Savoie cluster, Courchevel will host the Alpine skiing speed events – the downhill and super-G. The races will take place on the L’Éclipse Piste, specifically built to challenge the world’s best with sustained steepness, high speed, and technical demands.

The technical events — giant slalom and slalom — will be held just northeast of Courchevel in Val d’Isère. Men will compete on the historic La Face de Bellevarde slope, notorious as one of the steepest and most punishing faces in alpine racing. The women will compete on the nearby La Joseray course, marking its first time hosting Olympic competition.

Moving out of the Savoie region, freestyle skiing and snowboarding events will take place in the Briançon cluster in the Southern Alps. There, the events are split between Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre. Airborne events — moguls, aerials, and big air — will go down at Serre Chevalier with its massive base area for large stadiums. The speed and park disciplines of ski cross, snowboard cross, halfpipe, slopestyle, and snowboard parallel giant slalom will take place at Montgenèvre — as well as ski mountaineering.

It’s right here that the Olympics’ new sport throws a wrench in the planning process. Freeriding, which will make its Olympic debut in 2030, relies entirely on natural mountain terrain, powder conditions, and visibility. Because of this, immediate weather conditions play a huge role in course selection. Organizers have not yet decided on a venue, but the Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre regions have no shortage of premier freeride terrain. Serre Chevalier hosted a 4-star Freeride World Tour just last year, and it could end up getting selected if weather conditions are right.

Rounding out the skiing events are cross-country and biathlon, which will be held at La Clusaz and Le Grand-Bornand, respectively. 

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The release of the 2030 Alpes Winter Olympics sports venue masterplan comes just over a week after the departure of Edgar Grospiron, who served as the president of the French Alpes 2030 committee for just 18 months. When Grospiron joined the Games as president, he inherited a project that was already behind schedule when the bidding process began in 2023. When it was formally chosen as host in 2024, it was already on the tightest timeline of any modern Olympic host, according to the Associated Press. Tight timelines alongside long periods of tension within the organizing committee ultimately led to Grospiron’s departure.

Before Graspiron’s exit, the 2030 Olympics also lost its chief operating officer, Cyril Linette, who left after months of tension within the organizing committee. According to the AP, Linette and Graspiron had been in stark disagreement with each other regarding the direction of the Games.

The 2030 Alpes committee recently appointed Vincent Roberti as interim president. With his appointment, the Games look to bring some stability to the planning process. And with a finalized masterplan, it seems it has.

With the venue masterplan finally settled, athletes pushing for Olympic rosters can begin to visualize what the 2030 Games might look like. The IOC and organizing committee still have a lot of work to do ahead of the Games, including its Rencontres Alpes 2030 initiative, which involves “a series of meetings across the host territories to gather the views of local communities and stakeholders and ensure that the Games reflect regional priorities.”

While the 2030 Alpes Winter Olympics may have experienced some heavy turbulence in the past few months, it seems to have steered itself in a positive direction. With new leadership and a finalized masterplan, it feels as though the Games are finally starting to come together.