This is how Olympic poker went: how Emmanuel Macron snatched the games from Switzerland

The French responded to the Swiss charm offensive with equally loud pleasantries. But the man from Paris secretly had a completely different agenda.

Macron’s great promise

At that time, France and Switzerland were competing for the 2030 Winter Olympics. The French entourage did not miss the opportunity to lobby vigorously again in Lausanne VD, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has its headquarters. It is certain that Macron met with IOC President Thomas Bach (69), and the preparations for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris must also be discussed.

The head of state had a clear message to Olympic boss Bach: L’État, c’est moi – I am the state. Macron guarantees: if you give us the 2030 Winter Games, the games will happen. Point. La Grande Nation covers all financial risks.

The Swiss, who had to work on a project a year earlier by the IOC, could not keep up with it because there were no parties interested in implementing it in 2030. Minister of Sports Viola Amherd (61) also visited IOC President Bach at the time, according to research by Blick.

However, unlike Macron, Switzerland’s new federalist concept, with a purely privately funded event, carried a major risk: the Swiss people could bury their dreams in the ballot box. Given the time pressure, Macron’s guarantees came in handy.

The French power play worked: two weeks after Macron’s state visit, on November 29, the IOC’s ‘Future Host Commission’ made a Solomonic decision. France gets the 2030 Games. The Swiss are put on hold and can prepare unprecedentedly for the 2038 Games as part of a “Privileged Dialogue”.

Behind the scenes, we worked diligently on communication, all in consultation with VBS boss Amherd, who hailed the commitment for 2038 as a great success.

But again there was a disruptive maneuver by the French: it was actually agreed that the public would be informed at the same time at 6 p.m. But the French committee rushed forward at 4:30 PM and announced that they had won the march. With the hour and a half break of the blocking period, the competition gained sovereignty over interpretation and was able to announce victory to the world: we won, the others lost.

It’s up to Switzerland

Suddenly Switzerland was a loser. The old trauma of 1999, when the Zion Games were lost to Turin, was revived. Former federal councilor Dölf Ogi (81) spoke of a “slap in the face”. And Swiss ski president Urs Lehmann’s phone started ringing. “I explained the same thing everywhere: this decision is not a defeat, but rather a cross-generational project, a goal that we can work on together, with the generation of tomorrow.” We already have more guarantees from the IOC today than Salt Lake City will have in 2034. “But a dynamic has emerged that cannot be stopped.”

Lehmann tried in vain to take countermeasures. “It’s a good day for Swiss sport,” he told Blick shortly afterwards, with the headline: “Now Switzerland is suddenly the favorite for the 2038 Olympic Games.” But Lehmann and Co. were already on the defensive. This was especially bitter because the Swiss Olympic lobby had fought for the project with great enthusiasm beforehand, initially against skepticism at the Swiss Olympic Games – the supporters were initially ridiculed as a “guerrilla force”, as Lehmann puts it. Things continued undeterred behind the scenes.

Now the Swiss Olympic Alliance is broader than ever – Swiss Olympic President Jürg Stahl (55) is now one of the main advocates of the cause, and the resistance from the summer disciplines that was initially feared has disappeared. The Lucerne FDP State Council Damian Müller (39) is chairman of the equestrian association Swiss Equestrian. Initially, there was fear that a Winter Olympics would lead to a loss of support funds and thus reduce the chances of holding the European Championships (European Championships), a kind of multi-European championship of summer Olympic sports. The summer sports representatives are pushing for the event to be held in Switzerland in 2030 – the Olympic Games of the same year would have likely buried these plans.

Today, Müller radiates enthusiasm with an eye to 2038 and, like Swiss Olympic President Stahl, is enthusiastic about the “groundbreaking performance” that is urgently needed in the country. “We miss that today,” says Müller. That is why it is such an important signal that “those active now are also committed to future generations.” Müller’s efforts should not be underestimated – without agreement between winter and summer sports, the idea would hardly be possible.

But how certain is the IOC’s 2038 promise? Matthias Remund (60), director of the Federal Office for Sport, is one of the architects of the candidacy. He has confidence in Blick. He was “a little surprised” by the skepticism that now prevails.

Swiss ski president Urs Lehmann calls it a “transferable commitment”. In other words, it’s up to Switzerland: if it wants, it wins the contract. But does she want that? At the same time as its commitment to 2038, the IOC criticized Switzerland’s candidacy for everything that local Olympic boosters had celebrated as a step into the future: the decentralized implementation, the lack of Olympic villages and the lack of political guarantees. The world association demands everything that Swiss Olympic wanted to avoid – knowing that major investments in new infrastructure or financial guarantees have failed in the past to win the Olympic votes of the population.

Domestic lobbyists are working at full speed

The Swiss Olympic Alliance has about four years to get business done with Lausanne. The revised candidacy should be in effect by 2027 at the latest. IOC officials would prefer to have a direct route to the award next year – that would mean the contract would be signed at the IOC Congress in Athens in May 2025, and in Milan (I) no later than 2026.

Federal councilor Amherd’s department tells Blick that the boss welcomes the IOC’s decision on the “Privileged Dialogue”. In this way, the IOC “enables a long-term perspective regarding sports financing, sustainability and legacy”. There is “regular exchange” with Lausanne.

The local lobbyists are now trying to ensure that the entire Federal Council makes a joint statement to Thomas Bach next spring. Efforts are already being made in the background to have Viola Amherd meet the IOC boss again. If she brings the Olympics to Switzerland, she could retire with all the glory in 2025 – and her series of accidents in the VBS would be forgotten.

The IOC teams meet in January. And Olympic supporters have the power to infect their own population with their enthusiasm.

After all: with Emmanuel Macron they have one less opponent.