October 7 - Triple Olympic ski champion Jean-Claude Killy has told the bid team campaiging for Annecy that "the work you have achieved is nothing short of spectacular“.



During lunch with the Committee bidding for the 2018 Olympics and Paralympics against Munich and Pyeongchang, the influential member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said: "You can be proud of the project you have now established.

"This project, with its new setup, is a winner, to be sure

"That doesn’t mean it’s a foregone conclusion, but you have everything it takes to lead you to victory.

"Our mountains provide a setting second to none in its beauty, and the concept you are now submitting makes for an ultra-compact Olympic structure, based on two clusters - Annecy and Chamonix Mont-Blanc - in an exceptional natural setting in the very heart of the mountains, focusing on the needs of the athletes and the Olympic family as a whole.

"Today, you have moved on to the next level.

"You are the bearers of the French bid, the project of an entire nation, to organise the Winter Games, the world’s finest sporting event and, especially, the most complex event to organise.

"You can and you must, therefore, be the proud and worthy bearers of this project.

"You have nine months left to convince the IOC and the Olympic family.

"I encourage you to pursue your efforts, as a team, just as you have so successfully done until now.

"What you have put into your bid’s project is the finest there is, second to none nationwide, second to none worldwide!"

Killy, who appeared at the lunch alongside Edgar Grospiron, Olympic champion and chief executive of Annecy 2018, was greeted by sports team ambassadors Perrine Pelen, Florence Masnada and Jean-Pierre Vidal, together with Christian Monteil, President of the Haute-Savoie General Council and chairman of the Annecy 2018 Supervisory Board, and Jean-Luc Rigaut, co-chairman and Mayor of Annecy.


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