Capital of the 1992 Winter Games, the Savoyard town of Albertville celebrated, on Monday, the French Olympic champions returning from the Milan-Cortina Olympics, in the presence of Sébastien Lecornu. With a view to the next Games planned in the French Alps, the Prime Minister called for "all to pull (...) in the same direction to get there in 2030", while several executives of the Organizing Committee have resigned in recent months.

Published on: 02/23/2026 - 7:31 p.m. Modified on: 02/23/2026 - 10:48 p.m.

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“Everyone to their battle stations.” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called, Monday, February 23, on the Organizing Committee of the 2030 Olympic Games to overcome its differences, while Albertville celebrated the successes of the French team, which had just returned from the Milan-Cortina Games.

Biathlon of course, but also ice dancing or ski mountaineering. The French team concluded the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics on Sunday in sixth place in the medal table, with a record tally of 23 medals (including eight gold).

See alsoMilan-Cortina 2026: France sets a new record with 23 medals

Among the highly anticipated heroes of the day in Albertville, the multi-medalist biathletes Quentin Fillon Maillet and Océane Michelon or the cross-country skier Mathis Desloges appeared all smiles, gleaming medals around their necks. They were given a standing ovation by several thousand people waving French flags in the Albertville Olympic Hall, the venue for the 1992 Winter Olympics, the last that France has hosted to date.

The ceremony was intended to “honor the legacy of 1992 and launch our road to the 2030 French Alps Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).

It concluded with the symbolic display of a large five-ring flag, unfurled with sound and light by Alpine hunters abseiling from a large mast of around fifty meters.

Governance crisis

However, the event occurs in the midst of a governance crisis within the Games Organizing Committee (Cojop) while it now has less than four years left to complete its project in the French Alps.

Several of its executives have resigned in recent months and general manager Cyril Linette is also leaving due to the observation of “insurmountable disagreements”.

See also 2030 Olympic Games: will France be up to the task?

While the Olympic project has already suffered in recent months from governmental instability in France, the president of Cojop, the Olympic mogul ski champion in Albertville Edgar Grospiron, could himself find himself weakened by this turbulence.

Last week, a close friend of Emmanuel Macron indicated that the president had "sent the message that we must bring order to the organization of the 2030 Alps Olympic Games". “Within a month,” he said.

See alsoOJ 2030: “No one wants to close the enchanted parenthesis of the Games”, according to Edgar Grospiron

Sébastien Lecornu, who came on Monday to meet the organizers, including the presidents of the Aura regions, Fabrice Pannekoucke, and Paca, Renaud Muselier, as well as the athletes, for his part called for leaving aside "the sneers" who persist in predicting a failure of the Games.

“Everyone to their combat post and let’s all pull (…) in the same direction to get there in 2030,” he said.

“The next ones are at home”

Questioned by France Télévisions about the governance crisis within Cojop, Edgar Grospiron wanted to put things into perspective. “We manage. There is turbulence, but like in all projects of this type. We are there, we manage, we run the house,” he insisted.

After congratulating the athletes, Sébastien Lecornu questioned them about their experience in Italy and their expectations for the next Winter Games. “What you can tell us can be very important for understanding the organization we have for 2030,” he said.

Several mentioned the breakup of the Milan-Cortina sites, which the French Alps intend to imitate and even amplify. This new model, they underlined, makes it possible to use already existing infrastructures – and to reduce the bill – but also complicates transport and leaves certain sites a little isolated, when it does not result in an absence of “Olympic fervor” at the time of the medal ceremony, some regretted.

For Olympic biathlon champion Julia Simon, French sport is nevertheless now “launched”. “I think that yesterday's closing ceremony also allowed us to say to ourselves: 'Actually, the next ones are at home',” she rejoiced. “For me, it’s still difficult to project myself,” she added.

With AFP

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