“Bring all my expertise and my desire”: Catalan Martin Fourcade wants to organize the 2030 Winter Olympics

Martin Fourcade, en binôme avec Michel Barnier ? MAXPPP – Pierre Teyssot

The most decorated Frenchman in the history of the Olympic Games hopes to follow in Tony Estanguet's footsteps. He confirmed this on Saturday on the sidelines of the Biathlon World Cup stage organized in Haute-Savoie.  

The former biathlete Martin Fourcade, declared candidate for the leadership of the organizing committee (Cojop) of the 2030 Olympic Games awarded to the French Alps, “hopes to be able to bring all (his) expertise” and “all (his) desire”, he told L'Équipe on Saturday on the sidelines of the Biathlon World Cup stage in Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie). “It's a project that is difficult but that fascinates and attracts me”, added the five-time Olympic biathlon champion – probably six-time soon after the disqualification for doping of a competitor.

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“A turning point in history”

More than a year after the surprise awarding of the 2030 Olympic Games to the French Alps, the designation of the future boss of Cojop is slow and has just been postponed again a few days ago, at this stage to the end of January. “When, like me, you have had the chance to grow up, to evolve thanks to the Olympic Games, you realize the power of a project like this. From a sporting point of view of course, but also everything that it can bring to a territory, to a transition necessary today for winter sports“, developed the 36-year-old Pyrenees native, who lives in Annecy, at the foot of the Alps. “I am convinced that we are at this turning point in history where the 2030 Olympics have a lot to contribute“, he insisted. “I hope to be able to bring all my expertise but also all my desire to this project which will be, I hope, unique for France, in the continuity of the Paris Games”, hoped Fourcade, specifying that he does not “control the calendar”.

A duo with Michel Barnier ?

The JO-2024 “were a magnificent example of what sport had to offer us, of the way in which it could bring us together collectively as a country, of the way also in which it could move things forward in the right direction. I am sure that we can continue to take up this magnificent challenge, as Tony Estanguet (president of Paris-2024, editor's note) and his teams have done”, said the most decorated French athlete in Olympic history, currently tied with judoka Teddy Riner.

Sources close to the negotiations spoke to AFP at the beginning of the week about a preferred scenario that would associate Fourcade, at least for a time, with former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who co-chaired the organization of the previous Winter Games in France, those in Albertville in 1992.