French Alps 2030 to hold speed skating in Italy or Netherlands

French Alps 2030 to hold speed skating in Italy or NetherlandsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Speed skating events at Milan-Cortina 2026 took place in the south of the Italian cityByEmma SmithBBC Sport journalist in MilanPublished3 minutes agoThe speed skating events at the 2030 Winter Olympics will take place outside host nation France, it has been verified.The Games, known as French Alps 2030, will be mostly spread across south-east France with venue clusters in Nice, Briancon, Savoie and Haut-Savoie.However, the speed skating will take place in pre-existing venues in either Turin in northern Italy, or Heerenveen in the Netherlands.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Games organisers do not want to build new venues that would not have a definite legacy in the host region.Edgar Grospiron, president of the French Alps 2030 organising committee, stated holding the speed skating outside France was a condition agreed with the IOC upon becoming hosts of the Games.”This decision has already been taken, so the organising committee has to go on what has already been decided,” he told a media conference in Milan on Saturday, the day before the 2026 hosts hand over responsibility for the Games.”This is so that the Games in the French Alps can be as we want them to be.”For the first time we will have a Games with a discipline in another European country. This will be new; we will see if other Games do it.”Holding events away from the host city or region is not unprecedented in the Olympics. At Paris 2024, the surfing events were held on the Pacific island of Tahiti – approximately 10,000 miles away from France.But Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia, is an overseas territory of France, while the 2030 speed skating will be held in a different independent nation.Day-by-day guide to the Winter Olympics