A group of French officials want to bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, centering their focus on the Alps in the southeastern part of the country.
Presidents of the French Olympic and Paralympic committees and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions made an announcement Tuesday.
The plan is to submit an application to French officials in September.
Tuesday’s announcement did not specify venues, but did say that some existing infrastructures from the 1992 Albertville Games, the last time France hosted the Winter Games, would need to be used. Albertville is in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
France, which hosts the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, last bid for the Winter Games in 2018 with Annecy.
The IOC is expected to determine the 2030 host no earlier than this autumn but before the 2024 Paris Games.
Last month, the Swedish Olympic Committee said its 2030 bid, centered on Stockholm and extending north, entered into a “dialogue phase” with the IOC.
The Swedish Olympic Committee said the ongoing dialogue was expected to last just under six months with a possible final step of targeted dialogue.
Under recent future host reforms, the IOC can enter targeted dialogue with what it deems a “preferred host” candidate.
Hosts have traditionally been chosen by IOC members vote seven years before the Games, though recent reforms allow flexibility on the process and timeline.
For example, the 2024 and 2028 Games were awarded to Paris and Los Angeles in a historic double award in 2017. The 2032 Summer Games were awarded to Brisbane, Australia, in 2021 without a traditional bid race.
