100 years of the Olympic Games in the Alps, and a controversial legacy

Chamonix (Haute-Savoie), report

One hundred years after hosting the first Winter Olympic Games, the city of Chamonix proudly displays the vestiges of its Olympic history. Five multicolored rings and commemorative plaques placed on the occasion of the centenary now sit in the heart of the city, in front of a huge urban fresco which represents two Chamoniards carrying ice axes and skis.

« It is certain that with the success of this 1924 competition, Chamonix took a step forward »explains Bernadette Tsuda, at the foot of the rings. For more than a year, this heritage guide has been looking at her city’s Olympic heritage, passing on her passion to visitors on the occasion of the centenary of JO. « Our mayor’s bet to make Chamonix known was to have a beautiful summer and winter season.she continues. He won it. »

It was in Chamonix that the idea was born that JO winter could be a driving force for economic development in mountainous areas. Since then, the idea has transformed into a myth and has spread widely, leading to the construction of roads, housing as well as cutting-edge sports infrastructure, with the aim of hosting Games with an increasingly media aura. wide.

THE JO winter, a heritage called into question

From Chamonix in 1924, to Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992, the JO have put their mark on the French Alps three times. And the athletes should return in 2030, France having signed on October 2 the financial guarantees required by the International Olympic Committee of 520 million euros and thus committing to hosting the competition. A decision which angered environmental associations. In fact, do the Games always make people dream? ? With its oversized infrastructure, extremely expensive to maintain or abandoned, this heritage is increasingly called into question.

At the beginning of the 1920s, the arrival of JO winter in Chamonix had received a very different reception than for the current Games. Only three sports facilities had been built: a 36,000 square meter ice rink (the largest in the world at the time), a ski jump and a bobsleigh track (a sliding sport derived from luge), built entirely made of dry stone and made slippery thanks to packed snow. The competitors were mostly amateurs, equipped with rudimentary and non-standardized equipment. Finally, the Chamonix Palace, which now houses the Alpine Museum, a luxurious hotel with 200 rooms, already existed at the time of the JO of 1924.

Already accustomed to tourism thanks to Mont-Blanc, the Chamoniards had good hotel infrastructure and the city was accessible by train, which made it possible to reduce the necessary developments. The exact cost of the event remains difficult to quantify, but was limited by the fact that the events were initially designed as a competition on the sidelines of the “ true » JO of Paris, who had siphoned off most of the budget. « At that time, we were not yet talking about the Olympic Games, but about the international winter sports competition during the eighth Olympiad. »recalls Bernadette Tsuda. It was only in 1926, thanks to their success, that the Chamonix Games were retroactively awarded the Olympic title. Nearly 300 athletes from 16 countries attended.

Environmental consequences ignored

The mayor of Chamonix at the time, Jean Lavaivre, nevertheless launched

large loans to finance the ice rink. History will remember him as

elected visionary, ready to take risks for his small mountain town. Already popular with mountaineers and spa enthusiasts, Chamonix became, after his mandate, one of the premier showcases for winter sports. It also inherited unique infrastructures which, for some, are still used today: a hundred years later, the springboard is still used by local clubs, even if it no longer meets Olympic standards.

Abandoned in 1950 after a fatal accident, the bobsleigh track still lies in the forest and should become a memorial trail. As for the Olympic ice rink, it has been converted into an indoor ice rink and a sports field.

In 1968, France once again embarked on the Olympic adventure in Grenoble (Isère). Thanks to television, these JO have benefited from unprecedented visibility which has encouraged the development of considerable infrastructure, to the detriment of environmental consequences. Chamrousse, a resort which won the alpine skiing events, is an example. With the help of the army, organizers dug up the slope and moved 300,000 cubic meters of earth to create the tracks. Four new ski lifts have also been installed. Finally, urban developments for Grenoble have been added to the sports sites: housing for the press and athletes, new highways, a hospital, an airport, a new train station, etc.

Twenty-four years later, the JO winter returned to France under the leadership of alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy, grand champion of 1968, and Michel Barnier, then co-presidents of the Albertville (Savoie) candidacy. As in Grenoble, the ecological cost — clearings, earthworks, artificialization of soils, etc. — of these JO was incommensurate with the experience of Chamonix. In addition to sports infrastructure, a new national road, a train station TGV and a new hospital were built. The town of 20,000 inhabitants inherited « infrastructure equivalent to a city of 50,000 inhabitants »as Mayor Frédéric Burnier-Framboret explained to Dauphiné released in 2022.

Chamonix, Grenoble, Albertville… Each time, regional planning and the economic benefits linked to tourism were put forward to justify the Games. « In reality, Albertville made it possible to carry out work that had not been undertaken years before. »raises Éric Adamkiewicz, lecturer in sports management and former sports director for the city of Grenoble. This also allowed mayors to make greater contributions to the taxpayer: in Grenoble, the reimbursement of JO justified the increase in local taxes until 1995. In Albertville, the housing tax increased by 40 % between 1990 and 1993.

The era of white elephants

Criticisms emerged in the wake of JO concerning the management of sports infrastructures. If some have been converted, such as the ice stadium built in Grenoble in 1967 (now the Palais des Sports) or the athletes’ village, designed from the start as a future student residence (now abandoned), others fell into oblivion at the end of the JO. This is the case of the Alpe d’Huez bobsleigh track or the Saint-Nizier du Moucherotte springboard.

The latter now overlooks Grenoble like a gigantic concrete ridge, unused and unusable. « It is a very symbolic object, a heritage ruin, for which we regularly try to find a new use. »continues Eric Adamkiewicz, opposed to the organization of JO in the Alps. Too expensive to dismantle, the 90 meter long structure has become an urban wasteland mainly frequented by fans of urbex (climbing in an urban environment). This, despite the fences which prohibit access to the place.

This concrete ghost at least has the merit of not having become a financial burden, unlike many Olympic infrastructures dating from 1992. The bobsleigh track of La Plagne and the jumping hill in Courchevel have long been described as elephants whites — prestigious achievements whose maintenance becomes a burden over time — by economists.

Financial burdens

The La Plagne bobsleigh track, which swallowed up 230 million francs (35 million euros) during its construction, remained in deficit for years. « The Courchevel ski jump still exists and operates with a large deficit. Since it is one of the richest resorts in France, they can pay for the momentexplique Eric Adamkiewicz. But these deficits are also offset by money from the department. So the public authorities continue to put in patches. »

Today, the elected officials supporting the Alps’ candidacy for 2030 are promising JO more sober, with the reuse of 95 % of existing infrastructure. But for opponents of this candidacy, the argument does not hold up. « We act as if the chronic deficit of this equipment did not existargumente Eric Adamkiewicz. Their renovation will be direct costs which will not be able to be absorbed in the years to come. » And even if certain resorts will continue to organize competitions thanks to these cutting-edge infrastructures, the gap between their cost and the real needs of residents raises questions.

« The Olympic ice rink in Pralognan-la-Vanoise, for example, is today a dead weight for the town.adds the lecturer. Today the question arises: do we renovate the ice rink or do we buy a new teleport to ensure year-round tourism? ? » Without forgetting the environmental consequences: the two host regions of the JO 2030 estimate their carbon footprint between 689 and 804,000 tonnes of CO₂the equivalent of 450,000 Paris-New York round trips by plane. Once symbols, the Olympic infrastructures are transformed into bulky fossils, vestiges of an era when the development of the mountains was thought of exclusively through the prism of tourism.