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The French Alps 2030 organising committee appointed Vincent Roberti as interim president on September 14, 2026, following the departure of Edgar Grospiron, according to a statement from the committee. An extraordinary general assembly approved a temporary statutory change allowing Roberti to simultaneously serve as director general until a permanent successor is named, a move the committee said would ensure governance stability and operational continuity at a critical stage of preparations. Grospiron, the 1992 Olympic moguls champion, had held the presidency for just 18 months before resigning last week amid reported tensions over the event’s organisation. The change comes as the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission prepares to review progress in Lyon this week.
Grospiron’s exit marked the latest upheaval for a project that has seen multiple leadership shifts, Reuters reported. It followed the resignation of Cyril Linette as director general earlier this year over what he described as insurmountable disagreements with Grospiron, with Roberti stepping into that role in May 2026 after serving as prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne. Roberti, a career civil servant and graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration who previously held senior administrative posts in the Rhône and Isère departments within the host region, brings local knowledge to the position, according to a report by Acteurs Publics. The committee has also seen the departures of its chief operating officer and communications director in recent months, a BBC Sport account found.
The International Olympic Committee selected the French Alps to host the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in July 2024, Olympics.com figures show. The Games are set to run from February 1 to 17, 2030, across four clusters in south-eastern France that highlight both mountain and coastal venues while drawing on infrastructure from the 1992 Albertville Olympics to support sustainability goals. Organisers have maintained a focus on financial discipline with an operational budget of around 2 billion euros, as outlined in an AP News report from the project’s formal launch.
Preparations have encountered notable challenges, including the relocation of ice sports events from Nice to Lyon after the city’s newly elected mayor refused to convert a football stadium into a temporary rink, according to a Reuters assessment. Speed skating will instead be staged at the established Thialf arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands, aligning with the International Olympic Committee’s preference for using existing facilities that offer clear post-Games legacies. An IOC delegation is scheduled to hold a press conference in Lyon on Wednesday after completing its second assessment of the French Alps venues and overall readiness.
Vincent Roberti assumed the director general position only months ago, replacing Linette in a transition that French media linked to the same governance strains now affecting the presidency. The committee’s stakeholders, including representatives from the national government, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions, as well as Olympic and paralympic bodies, voted unanimously for the interim arrangement. French Sports Minister Marina Ferrari has downplayed concerns about the repeated changes, telling reporters there is no worry for the project’s future, BBC Sport reported.
The French Alps bid was assembled rapidly in 2023 and received special dispensation from the International Olympic Committee to finalise government guarantees after its initial approval. With fewer than four years until the opening ceremony, the organising committee is accelerating work on remaining venue adaptations and operational plans while seeking to apply lessons from the ongoing Milano Cortina 2026 Games. Additional decisions on programme adjustments, including potential inclusion of new sports, will be coordinated with international federations in the months ahead.
