Boss quits Annecy Olympics bid

France’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in Annecy has taken a blow with the resignation of general director Edgar Grospiron, who quit saying the budget of €20 million was not enough to win the games.

“I cannot win the games with this budget and in the time remaining” the former Olympic gold medallist said, noting that the International Olympic Committee’s final vote is in seven months, on July 6 in South Africa.

Haute-Savoie Conseil Général president Christian Monteil, in charge of overseeing the candidature, had just announced an increase in budget from €18m to €20m after previous criticism from Grospiron, saying: “This is a budget compatible with good management of public resources.”

Annecy is facing challenges from Pyeongchang (South Korea) and Munich; Grospiron said they were much better funded.

However, Annecy’s bid has already been criticised by the IOC as being too spread out. It was redrawn to focus more events on Annecy and Chamonix.

French IOC members Jean-Claude Killy and Guy Drut have also warned that the bid is in trouble. Killy, the three-time Alpine skiing champion, said they were “heading for a fall” and Montreal hurdles gold medal winner Drut said they had started “from too far back”.

The IOC is due to visit Annecy in February to start its rounds of inspections.

The announcement of Grospiron’s resignation came after the Annecy 2018 bid members met sports minister Chantal Jouanno to try to reinforce their international promotion of the bid. She had said that the bid needed more communication and lobbying.

France last staged the Winter Games in 1992 in Albertville, its third games after Chamonix in 1924 and Grenoble in 1968.