2030 Winter Olympics

The 2030 Winter Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d'hiver de 2030), officially known as the XXVI Olympic Winter Games 2030 (French: XXVI Jeux Olympiques d'hiver) and branded as French Alps 2030 (French: Alpes Françaises 2030), is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 1 to 17 February 2030 in the French Alps region of France.
As part of the new Olympic bid process, the Future Host Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nominated the French Alps as its preferred candidate on 29 November 2023. The French Alps' bid was approved during the 142nd IOC Session in Paris on 24 July 2024.
This will be the first time in history that the Olympics will be officially hosted by two regions, with Nice as the host of ice sports, except for speed skating. Additional venues will be shared by the departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Hautes-Alpes in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and the departments of Haute-Savoie and Savoie in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. These games will be the second consecutive Winter Olympic Games to be hosted in the Alps, following the 2026 Winter Olympics, hosted by Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The new IOC bidding process was approved at the 134th IOC Session on 24 June 2019 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The key proposals, driven by the relevant recommendations from Olympic Agenda 2020, are:
The IOC also modified the Olympic Charter to increase its flexibility in choosing hosts by making the date of elections more flexible and allowing multiple cities, regions, or countries to host instead of only single cities, regions or countries.
According to the Future Host Commission's rules of conduct, the new IOC bidding system is divided into 2 dialogue stages:
On 29 November 2023, per the recommendation of the Future Host Commission, the IOC Executive Board invited the French National Olympic and Sports Committee to targeted dialogue proposing that the 2030 Winter Olympics be held in the French Alps.
The French Alps were conditionally ratified as hosts during the 142nd IOC Session on 24 July 2024 in Paris, France; as per the new bid process, the vote was in the form of a referendum to the 95 IOC delegates. The decision to award the Games was made under the condition that financial guarantees from federal and state governments be secured by October 2024; usually, these are secured as part of the bid process, but this was hindered by the French political crisis and 2024 French legislative elections.
In October 2024, new prime minister Michel Barnier sent a letter to IOC president Thomas Bach to confirm the French government's financial support.
The impacts of climate change have become a central focus of the International Olympic Committee in planning the Winter Olympics. According to the IOC, the number of NOCs capable of hosting the Winter Olympics—which require access to snow competition venues with adequate temperature and snowfall—has declined to "practically just 10-12".
As a result of these challenges, the decision on the 2030 Winter Olympics host city was delayed until 24 July 2024 to allow the IOC more time to carefully plan the future of the Winter Olympics. The IOC awarded both the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics at the 142nd IOC Session in Paris, on the eve of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Organizers have not yet decided where within the region the opening ceremony will take place. There has also been no decision on who will receive the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games. The only certainty about the ceremonies is that the closing ceremony will be held at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The head of the organizing committee, Edgar Grospiron, has hinted in an interview with Le Monde that one of the options for the venue of the opening ceremony is Metropolis of Lyon, as the organizing committee is headquartered in Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu.
Unlike the previous hosts, the only sport that does not yet have a confirmed venue is speed skating, as the French have committed not to build any new competition venues within the IOC's new sustainability policies led by the Agenda 2030. The organizers are studying possibilities ranging from constructing a temporary arena in Nice or any other city in the region, renovating existing facilities in Grenoble or Albertville, or even holding competitions in a neighboring country. Within this measures, the mayor of Turin, the biggest city near the host region, Stefano Lo Russo announced that the city, which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics, was invited by the organizers of this edition to host the long track speed skating events at Oval Lingotto, since this is the closest existing competition venue to the host region. However, both the IOC and the organizers have not yet officially announced which option has been chosen.
The International Olympic Committee approved at the 142nd IOC Session the initial sports programme: biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, and skiing. The disciplines in each sport will be determined in late 2025.
Various sanctioning bodies have announced plans to pursue bids for sports to be added to the 2030 Winter Olympics:
In France, pay television and streaming rights are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery via Eurosport, with free-to-air coverage owned by France Télévisions under a sublicense agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). On 16 January 2023, the IOC announced that it had renewed its European broadcast rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery. The agreement, covering from 2026 to 2032, includes pay television and streaming rights to the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics on Eurosport and Discovery+ in 49 European territories. Free-to-air rights packages were concurrently awarded to the EBU and its members to cover at least 100 hours of each Winter Olympics, with EBU member France Télévisions agreeing to broadcast the Games in France.