French Alps 2030: Next Winter Olympics will hold speed skating in Italy or Netherlands — 2030 Winter Olympics
The 2030 winter olympics, branded French Alps 2030, will stage speed skating outside the host nation, organisers have confirmed. The decision changes the footprint of the Games, which will otherwise be centred on venue clusters across south‑east France.
Where the speed skating will go: Turin or Heerenveen
Organisers said the speed skating competitions will be held in pre‑existing venues in either Turin in northern Italy or Heerenveen in the Netherlands. The choice reflects a commitment by the International Olympic Committee and the French Alps 2030 organising team not to build new arenas that would lack a clear legacy in the host region.
Edgar Grospiron and the IOC set the condition for the 2030 Winter Olympics
Edgar Grospiron, president of the French Alps 2030 organising committee, said holding the speed skating outside France was a condition agreed with the IOC when France became host. "This decision has already been taken, so the organising committee has to go on what has already been decided, " he said at a media conference in Milan on Saturday, the day before the 2026 hosts hand over responsibility for the Games.
Grospiron added: "This is so that the Games in the French Alps can be as we want them to be. For the first time we will have a Games with a discipline in another European country. This will be new; we will see if other Games do it. "
Venue clusters in south‑east France, with Nice hosting several ice sports
French Alps 2030 will be mostly spread across south‑east France with venue clusters in Nice, Briançon, Savoie and Haute‑Savoie. Figure skating, which does not currently have a confirmed location, will take place in Nice; curling and ice hockey are also slated for Nice.
Unsettled programme items: 15% still to be decided and the full schedule
Grospiron said about 15% of sports and venues for 2030 have not yet been decided, and that details will be confirmed by June this year. He also said the organising committee will decide which new sports, if any, will be added to the programme and whether any events will be removed. The reporting referenced a full schedule including times of medal events.
Precedent from Paris 2024 and carry‑over questions from Milan‑Cortina 2026
Holding events away from the host city or region is not unprecedented. At Paris 2024, the surfing events were held on the Pacific island of Tahiti—approximately 10, 000 miles away from France—though Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia, is an overseas territory of France. The 2030 speed skating will, by contrast, be held in a different independent nation.
The speed skating note follows another recent Olympic arrangement: speed skating events at Milan‑Cortina 2026 took place in the south of the Italian city. Ski mountaineering was the only sport to make its Olympic debut at Milan‑Cortina 2026, and that sport is yet to be confirmed as a medal event for the French Alps.
Nordic combined and the programme's unsettled items
The future of Nordic combined has not yet been confirmed for French Alps 2030. Nordic combined was the only event at Milan‑Cortina 2026 not to have a women's competition, and organisers have not made its 2030 status clear.
