Olympic Curling 2030 Shifts North to Lyon

The International Olympic Committee, in tandem with the French Alps organizing committee, has moved all 2030 Olympic ice sports from the temperate Mediterranean city of Nice to Lyon, some 300 kilometres north.

The shift will see curling and Paralympic wheelchair curling contested in a corner of the mammoth Eurexpo Lyon Parc des Expositions, using modular ice plant equipment brought in for the Games.

The trouble with Nice, which was first announced as the centrepiece of the winning Olympic bid in 2024, reached a crescendo after the election of a new municipal government.

The move north follows multiple disagreements with far-right mayor Eric Ciotti, which is expected to cost Nice upwards of €1 billion in cancelled infrastructure projects and lost economic impact.

The new Lyon cluster features curling, figure skating, ice hockey and short track speed skating. 

Alpine skiing will be hosted at Courchevel and Val d’Isère, snowboarding disciplines in the southern alps at Montgenèvre and Serre Chevalier, and long track speed skating will be hosted at Heerenveen in the Netherlands. 

Eurexpo Lyon is a mammoth facility, boasting a 140,000 square-metre exhibition area spread over seven halls. There are 26 meeting rooms and even a 110-hectare outdoor site.

Olympic curling at Eurexpo is believed to be planned for the Espace Paul Bocuse, a 10,000-square metre space with a 2,400-seat (expandable) auditorium.

Eurexpo Lyon has hosted or exhibited sports in the past, such as equestrian, fitness racing (HYROX), combat sports, and ski and snowboard, but curling will require a full outlay of modular (mobile) icemaking and maintenance equipment.

Past Olympics have utilized this technology, from the “cube” facilities at Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 to the most recent Olympic curling and Paralympic wheelchair curling events held last February in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Organizers brought a backup refrigeration plant to Cortina, which soon became the primary unit due to a superior control setup. 

In addition, several backup dehumidifiers were also trucked in to supplement the two already on site at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium – which has now returned to its former name, the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio. 

Eurexpo Lyon is France’s largest convention and exhibition centre outside of Paris. Located halfway between the airport/railway hub and the city centre, the other ice sport venues are approximately 12 kilometres away.