The troubles continue for the organizers of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games. At 857 days and a handful of hours from the opening ceremony – a little more than 28 months – a file remains marked with an immense point of 'question. It is not the thinnest, since it concerns the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton sliding track.
Since the start of preparation in 2019, the Olympic site dedicated to the three disciplines has been the subject of an intense standoff between the IOC and the organizing committee. The Italians were pleading for a complete renovation of the historic Eugenio Monti track, used for the Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games in 1956. The IOC considered the project unrealistic, because it was too expensive. But the Olympic body ended up giving in, in the spring of 2021.
The only problem, but a major one: the work has still not started. And the doubts are piling up.
First hard blow for the Italian organizers: the lack of response to the call for tenders launched for the renovation of the track. According to national media, no company likely to embark on such an adventure has responded.
Second problem: rising costs. Since the first studies, the estimated cost of the project has almost doubled. It has now reached 80 million euros. An estimate that could still rise. With less than three years until the Games, time is running out. It is even said, in Italy, that the project might not be finished on time given the current state of the schedule.
Finally, the last obstacle on the road to the organizing committee: an increasingly offensive political opposition. It is led by the Italian Green Party.
Determined to bury a project that they consider to be little in line with the environmental commitments of Milan-Cortina 2026, its elected officials tabled a motion in the Chamber of Deputies to ask the government to accept plan B proposed by the mayor of the city Innsbruck: the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events on the Igls track.
The motion was amended, before going to the voting stage, to give it a more vague appearance. The government is now being asked to study all possible options to find an alternative to the Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The motion was approved by a huge majority.
Less than 900 days before the Games, the Italian organizers find themselves facing a blank page. By continuing to play the history card with the Cortina option, they risk a surge in their budget, opposition from environmental parties and organizations, and uncertainty over the work schedule.
The opposite scenario, presumed less costly, would send bobsledders, lugeers and skeleton specialists to live their Olympic experience in a neighboring country. In Austria, even in Switzerland, where the Saint-Moritz option is not ruled out. The site map would once again be reviewed and corrected.
In either case, they are not decision-makers. The last word does not entirely belong to them, it is in the hands of the authorities.
Giovanni Malagò, the president of the organizing committee – and of the Italian Olympic Committee – makes no secret of it: the uncertainty is becoming more and more worrying. He told the media on Monday October 2, on the sidelines of the presentation of the future athletes’ village in Milan: “ We are not in charge of the construction of the Olympic works, but we are waiting with great impatience for a response, hopefully in a few days at the latest, from those who are responsible for the site. We got the 2026 Winter Games with a file where bobsleigh, skeleton and luge were in Cortina. But we evaluate any other alternative, because our job remains to find the best solution"
According to several sources in Italy, a very unexpected option would even be on the table: using the Beijing 2022 Winter Games track, a facility built for the Olympic event in the Yanqing district.
