ABSTRACT
France has organized the Winter Olympics three times: at Chamonix in 1924, [1] Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992. Although the economic ramifications were considerable for those involved, [2] the first two events were mostly organized by the host country in a climate dominated by political and nationalist considerations. In the first case, the idea was to reposition France after the First World War, which had considerably modified the world power balance. The French authorities designed the 1924 Olympic Games to allow the country to impose itself as a European leader as well as to counterbalance the rising importance of the United States internationally. [3] As Deputé Noblemaire declared when the French candidature was presented to the IOC, ‘It is absolutely vital that France does not lose in the eyes of the world of athletics, which is predominant in numerous countries such as America, Britain and the Scandinavian countries, the prestige which had been bestowed upon it by that supreme sport: war.’ [4] More than 40 years later, the Grenoble games were conceived in the context of the Cold War. The aim of General De Gaulle was to turn France into a third political option located between East and West, while at the same time improving the country's image, which was then particularly low in the United States. [5] According to Georges Lagorce and Robert Parienté, ‘Defeat in Grenoble would have meant the defeat of France as a whole.’ [6]
