Its pitch to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)certainly scored top marks in terms of sincerity and conviction and a genuine belief that theirs was a bid lacking rhetoric and staying true to the Olympic spirit.

But whether the rank outsiders did enough to bring anything new to the table and persuade wavering IOC members to back them over Pyeongchang and Munich remained highly doubtful after a largely colourless presentation that was high on authenticity but came up short in terms of inspiration and originality.

Anyone who has been on a winter sports holiday knows full well that the region around Mont Blanc is an exceptional and world-famous setting as Annecy's delegates here repeatedly emphasised.

But the IOC members might have been looking for something more persuasive than repeatedly stressing how the region was the number one global destination for winter sports and how the slopes were the lifeblood of successive generations.

Annecy typically used images of the region's iconic mountains, notably the majesty of Mont Blanc, to cement the view that the Olympics were its spiritual home, Chamonix having staged the first winter games in 1924.

They also stressed the compactness of the bid and highlighted how local schoolchildren learned to ski almost as soon as they could walk.

But the applause which followed individual contributions was in the main modest and polite in contrast to the outbursts of approval that Munich's innovative and gripping showcase had earlier enjoyed.

There were, nevertheless, some clever contributions.

Praising the other two candidates would have gone down well, while bid boss Charles Beigbeder made the point that if they won, Annecy would be only a stone's throw from IOC headquarters in Lausanne.

It was left to the hand-picked delegation athletes themselves to take IOC members round the various venues - including a unique international training centre - while French Prime Minister François Fillon (pictured) best summed up Annecy's credentials by saying any bid for the winter Games had to have a "soul".

Another canny ploy was pushing a fresh-faced 21-year-old Kevin Rolland on to the podium as the voice of the future.

Rolland is France's halfpipe freestyle ski champion, whose sport was only added to the winter Olympic roster this week, starting in 2014 in Sochi.


Fine words also came from former Olympic skiing champion Jean-Claude Killy, an IOC member and arguably the country's greatest winter sports icon.

"Being an Olympian, I know what that means," said Killy, who won triple gold in France's 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

"The call of the mountains is not only that of one of the world's greatest wonders, it is that of an entire community."

In the questions that followed from IOC members, Beigbeder was unconvincing when asked about Annecy's unique selling point, while Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno was quizzed about whether the games really had the support of the population.

Annecy has been plagued with public opposition as well as severe financial constraints but Jouanno insisted all venues would be full.

"Opinion polls were less good than we expected at the time when we had some internal difficulties but recent polls are much better," she said.

"We have never had trouble filling stadiums and I'm not concerned about this."

Afterwards, one veteran IOC member told insidethegames that delegates were looking for something more than just a re-assertion of Annecy's technical ability.

"We all knew that from when they came to Lausanne in May," he said.

"The members were looking more for emotion this time."

But another member took a different view.

"Delivering an athlete from a new event that has only just been introduced was smart.

"So was using Olympic champions to showcase the venues."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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