Giovanni Malago, Chairman of the Organising Committee for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, announced on Monday 16 October in Mumbai, on the second day of the 141st IOC Session: the historic bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track in Cortina d’Ampezzo will not be rebuilt for the next Winter Games. The decision has been made. It will not be questioned again. “We were informed two days ago by the Italian government that we had to find another solution using an existing facility, explained the Italian, who is also President of the National Olympic Committee (CONI). We are therefore going to study different options for organising the events outside Italy.” The renovation of the Eugenio-Monti track, built for the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, has therefore been definitively abandoned. The call for tenders launched earlier this year to find one or more companies to carry out the work was unsuccessful. No proposals were even submitted. The Italians will have to turn to a Plan B, a track that already exists abroad. Karl Stoss, le président du Comité olympique autrichien, a profité de la présentation des organisateurs italiens devant la session, lundi à Mumbai, pour pousser une nouvelle fois la candidature de l’Autriche pour recevoir les épreuves. Dans un tel scénario, les compétitions olympiques de bobsleigh, luge et skeleton pourraient se dérouler sur la piste d’Igls, non loin d’Innsbruck, utilisée notamment pour les Jeux de la Jeunesse d’hiver en 2012.
