Former Olympic skiing champion Edgar Grospiron was on Tuesday formally anointed head of the committee organising the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.
Grospiron, 55, emerged as a candidate after another former Olympic champion Martin Fourcade terminated his campaign to operate as the face of the Winter Games.
The former biathlete stepped away at the start of the month after several clashes with the leaders of the regions that will host the event.
Grospiron was selected following talks between David Lappartient, head of the French National Olympic Committee, Marie-Amélie Le Fur, his counterpart at the French Paralympic Committee and the sports minister Marie Barsacq.
"Thank you to Edgar for accepting this challenge," said Lappartient during the official launch of the organising committee at the Groupama Stadium in Décines, near Lyon. "There is a lot of work to be done."
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In his first official address as boss of the organising committee, Grospiron hailed the work of the teams that have brought the event to France.
"A lot of people did a lot of things so that the Games could be staged here and now my mission is to organise them," he said.
"I'm determined to deliver impeccable Games and we'll do our best to ensure that they have as small an ecological footprint as possible, and that they can be held in incredible venues.
These Olympics are part of a bigger issue, part of a whole that ties in with my vision of the mountains in the face of the climate challenge and the increasing scarcity of snow cover. We need a vision that will support the transition of the French mountains. The Games must be a catalyst for this. If we manage to do that, we'll come away proud."
Before pulling out of the race to lead the committee, President Emmanuel Macron likened Fourcade to Tony Estanguet who helped to organise the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Like Estanguet, who won three Olympic gold medals in the canoeing in Games between 2000 and 2012, Fourcade was a sustained performer.
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Success
He claimed his first gold in Vancouver in 2010 in the 15km mass start. Four years later in Sochi, he took silver in the 15km mass start but won gold in the 12.5km pursuit and the 20km individual.
In 2018 in Pyeonchang, he retained the pursuit title, collected the top prize in the 15km mass start for a second time and added a mixed relay crown to become France's most successful Winter Olympian.
Grospiron's sole gold came in 1992 in Albertville in the moguls event - skiing over a course of bumps. A bronze was paraded two years later in Lillehammer in the same discipline.
After retiring, Grospiron developed a career as a motivational speaker. In 2012, he was the chef de mission for the France team at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics and headed Annecy's bid to stage the 2018 Winter Olympics.
As president of the organising committee, his first task will be to name a chief executive. He will then have to satisfy the demands of local and national politicians right up to the president as well as national and international Olympic administrators.
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"The challenge ahead of me is like a long field of bumps," joked Grospiron. "So you're going to need strong knees. Don't worry, I'm used to it.
"We're going to encounter bumps, but our mission is going to be to overcome them, to face them. The bigger the obstacle, the greater the opportunity behind it, and that's what we're going to be working on together with the organising committee."
The 2030 Winter Games are scheduled to run between 1 and 16 February and will be hosted by two regions.
Nice will stage the ice sports, except for speed skating. Additional venues will be shared by the departments of Alpes-Maritmes and Hautes-Alpes in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur and the departments of Haute savoie and Savoie in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.
"We have the opportunity to keep the flame of the Games alive, and after the Summer Games, here come the Winter Games in France," said Barsacq.
"We need to plan this event with the athletes, for the athletes, by continuing to invest in high performance. The Games are also an opportunity to accelerate projects that contribute to the development of our regions. We can no longer organise an event of this scale without thinking about the aftermath."
