When in the Savoie Valleys, the eminent subject of the 1992 Olympic Games is broached, a legend descends at the speed of an echo: where the evening of December 5, 1981 in Val d’Isère is quickly discussed. The menu – raclette or fondue – remains a vague memory, but the casting is known.
On one side, the now Prime Minister Michel Barnier, at the time a very young MP for the constituency, on the other, Jean-Claude Killy, a legend of French skiing. The two men are attending the Critérium de la Première neige, an event that opens the season of the “great white circus”. Between two pieces of melted cheese and a glass of Chautagne wine, they chat. “What if we brought the Olympics to Savoie?”
“That’s why I say it took me eleven years to prepare for a 16-day event,” he likes to repeat when we talk to him again about this major event.
Albertville’s snub to Chambéry
Because the idea, a little crazy, would come to fruition less than five years later, after having served as a common thread in the electoral campaign of the young wolf of politics (30 years old) who set out to conquer the general council (today the departmental council) of a sector rather classified as left-wing at the time. A few months later in the spring of 1982, he achieved his goal, becoming head of the department.
With all the powers, he put together a tight-knit team to put into practice the candidacy he would present in Lausanne in the autumn of 1986 around Albertville, the third largest city in the department. There was no question of organising this from the prefecture, Chambéry, held by the other strong man in the department, Louis Besson, 14 years his senior. And a member of the Socialist Party, even if the two men would never make their label an obstacle to playing collectively for the good of “their” Savoie.
Already, with the concern of not imposing, without explaining, this event on the locals, he multiplies the information meetings in the smallest canton where he underlines to whoever will listen what such an event will bring concretely. “We will build a highway to relieve congestion in the resort accesses, and we will be able to seek budgetary allocations from the State and Europe. This will be all that less that the Savoyards will be able to carry. And above all, with the development of winter tourism, essential to our economy, sooner or later, we will have to carry out these works.”
“Don’t just vacuum once”
The language element “heritage” is not yet well used, but he already uses it a lot. “And then, you know, we could do like when we have friends over and just vacuum to pretend that everything is clean. I want us to remove all the furniture to remove everything and start over,” he explains. Thus, Courchevel will be entitled to its multi-star facelift to welcome the Olympic family. We know what happens next for the other famous resort in the Three Valleys…
The two men share the work: Killy, the purely sporting and competitive aspect with its legendary demands, Barnier the emergence of structural elements and for the long term.
“For him, it’s not the Olympics for the Olympics, it’s first and foremost the Games for regional planning,” explains the former mayor of Albertville, Albert Gibello.
Ten sewage treatment plants were built for these Olympic Games, five bus stations, the Albertville hospital was completely renovated, a road regulation center was set up, a major cultural center was created in Chambéry and 70 baroque chapels were dusted off. In a department where 60% of the GDP is generated during the four winter months above 1500 meters above sea level, this development project behind the event will remain its DNA, carried relentlessly. And all this, more than thirty years later, continues: the Olympic hall hosts many concerts, bringing culture closer to the mountains and its inhabitants, usually obliged to go to Chambéry (30 minutes) or Lyon (90 minutes).
The consecration
After a long period of persuasion among the 360,000 inhabitants, all called upon to affix a sticker “Albertville candidate for the 1992 Olympic Games” and buoyed by the success of the world cycling championships in Chambéry in 1989, which served as a dress rehearsal for welcoming tourists in large numbers, he succeeded in mobilizing, in bringing people together. A momentum was born in the mountains and crossed the border in October 1986.
The day after the grand oral, on October 17, Juan Antonio Samaranch, then all-powerful head of the IOC, opened the envelope and let slip the name of Albertville. Michel Barnier and Jean-Claude Killy could exult and fall into each other’s arms, victory was in their hands. Many young aspiring Savoyards were learning a new profession: a certain Jean-Claude Blanc, head of marketing but also of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, was not the least of them.
Executive co-president of the COJO (organising committee for the 1992 Olympic Games), he continued to lead the political affairs of the department, although he was excluded from a ministerial portfolio: it was rumoured that the cohabitation Prime Minister Jacques Chirac was angry with him for having won the Games.
With Killy, a real bond
With Jean-Claude Killy, a real bond is formed, the two learning from each other, Michel Barnier finding in the accomplished athlete in 1968 on the slopes and then in the American sports business in the 70s and 80s something to feed his desire to learn to develop through sport. He also learns to deal with the demands of each of the mountain valleys, often not very inclined to work together.
His favorite phrase? “Sectarianism is a sign of weakness.” When he had to explain to Les Menuires that for reasons of economy, the Trois Vallées resort had to disappear in favor of Val d’Isère, the neighbor and competitor, he showed diplomacy where Jean-Claude Killy decided to slam the door. Everything would return to normal, the Olympic slalom of February 1992 would finally be held on the slalom stadium of the Belleville valley. An art of compromise learned from his mother, Denise Barnier, a great lady of the associative world in Albertville, founder of the national union of parents and friends of the mentally handicapped.
Speaking of consensus, “the Great”, as he is affectionately called by his colleagues at the COJO premises in Albertville, has to deal politically throughout the six years of preparation for the Olympic Games. If the eleven years that separate the idea from the event (1981–1992) remain associated with the François Mitterrand era, he has to deal in the final stretch with three prime ministers: one of cohabitation and on his side, Jacques Chirac, and two (Michel Rocard and Édith Cresson) who are not.
But these color changes will remain odorless and painless. The Olympics sound like a success, summed up by a famous columnist of the Dauphine Liberatedthe regional daily where he wrote this famous half-culinary, half-humorous phrase: “We can’t stage the Snow Games without the great Barnier…”
From white to green
A sportsman and a fan of downhill skiing (of course), running, he was also seen swimming in a lake in Savoie, that of Aiguebelette between Lyon and Chambéry. Was it on that day that he had the idea of extending the development of his department through sporting events and organizing a world rowing championship? In any case, as soon as the Olympics were over, he extended the existence of the tourist agency with a branch in charge of organizing various championships.
And rather on a global level. Perrine Pelen, the former alpine ski champion, at the helm of the COJO, is investing in the mission with a roadmap: to serve the entirety of her territory, made up of mountains and the most beautiful areas in the world, but also of somewhat forgotten lakes. After the “white” events, we need some “green” ones.
The rowing world championships quickly arrived in 1997 (then in 2015) in Aiguebelette, before the canoe-kayak championships in 2002 in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. And when the mayor of Albertville, Albert Gibello, had to present the candidacy of his city and its Halle (Olympic) to host the handball world championships in 2001 with the matches of the French team (including a historic quarter-final against Germany), Michel Barnier assisted him, without batting an eyelid. He did not forget, from near or far, to support the candidacies of the “fundamentals”, the alpine skiing world championships in 2009 in Val d’Isère then in 2023 in Courchevel where he spent, a head and spatulas, in love with his territory and the competition.
In this month of February 2023, he surely did not suspect that he would have on his desk as Prime Minister a first important file, that of the State guarantee for the 2030 Olympic Games in the Alps, and therefore in Savoie. As if he were closing a loop, he who was appointed at 73 years old, the age of… his department!
- RMC Sport
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