While France lacks a suitable facility and has no plans to build one, the organizers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French Alps are hesitating between Turin’s Oval and Heerenveen’s Thialf to host the competitions.
One uncertainty remains on the map of venues for the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in the French Alps: the location of the 400-meter ice oval for long-track speed skating events. France does not have such a facility. From the bidding phase, the idea of building a permanent structure was abandoned—too expensive to construct and maintain. The same goes for a temporary installation.
Organizers therefore looked at what existed in neighboring countries. Very quickly, the choice narrowed to Turin’s Oval (Italy) and Heerenveen’s Thialf (Netherlands). The first, used for the 2006 Winter Games, now functions more as a venue for conferences or corporate seminars within the Lingotto Fiere exhibition park than as an ice rink. Its temporary reconfiguration into an Olympic oval would require costly upgrades to meet standards, and who bears these costs is currently under discussion with the Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee.