French Alps the sole candidate for 2030 Winter Olympics

PARIS - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday confirmed the French Alps and Salt Lake City as the sole candidates to host the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games.

Karl Stoss, head of the IOC's future host commission, said Olympic chiefs would now move into "targeted dialog" with the two candidates.

The French bid moved forward at the expense of the two other candidates, Sweden, which bid to host the 2030 Winter Games in cooperation with Latvia, and Switzerland.

Only Salt Lake City in the United States has launched a bid to host the 2034 Games.

The hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics will be announced next summer.

France, which welcomes the Summer Olympics in 2024, has hosted the Winter Games three times: Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992.

Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The bid for the 2030 Games is based around Meribel, Courchevel and Val d'Isere for alpine skiing while La Clusaz would host Nordic events. The Olympic village would be in the Mediterranean city of Nice, which would host skating events.