2030 Olympic committee boss to leave amid disputes

Edgar Grospiron, president of the organizing committee for the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French Alps, is set to leave his post just 18 months after his appointment, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday.

Negotiations are under way over the terms of his departure, which is backed at “the highest levels of the French State,” the source said, capping a rocky period marked by governance disputes and a string of senior departures.

The move is expected to be formalized at an executive board meeting today.

2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games organising committee president Edgar Grospiron speaks during a session of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne on June 25.

Photo: AFP

The source, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said Grospiron had come close to being ousted during the Milan-Cortina Winter Games earlier this year.

On that occasion, director general Cyril Linette left instead, citing “insurmountable disagreements” with Grospiron.

Key Games stakeholders, including the French government, the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes regions, and the French Olympic and Paralympic committees told the International Olympic Committee late last month that “trust had been broken” with Grospiron, the source said.

The rupture followed a tense executive board meeting on July 23 at which Grospiron sought to push through two appointments, the source added.

Two days later, French Olympic Committee president Amelie Oudea-Castera told local media that the project was “once again facing governance problems.”

Grospiron, the 1992 Olympic moguls champion, was appointed in February last year and had already faced a governance crisis earlier this year.

That culminated in Linette’s departure in February following a series of other senior exits, including those of the organizing committee’s operations director and communications director.