A soap opera. Less than 1.000 days before the event (D – 835 this Wednesday October 25), the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games takes on the appearance of a TV series with twists and turns, where each episode likes to twist the scenario to the point of threatening it with rupture.
On Tuesday October 24, a summit meeting brought together all the project stakeholders in Milan. She wanted to be “ informal ”, but the cast gathered around the table says a lot about the importance of the discussions: Andrea Abodi, the Minister of Sports, who came to speak for the government; the mayors of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Giuseppe Sala and Gianluca Lorenzi; the presidents of the Lombardy and Veneto regions, Attilio Fontana and Luca Zaia; the presidents of the provinces of Trento and Bolzano, Maurizio Fugatti and Arno Kompatscher; plus, of course, the president of Milan-Cortina 2026, Giovanni Malagò, the vice-president, Luca Pancalli, and the general director, Andrea Varnier. Heavy, then.
On the agenda, only one subject: the sliding track. An emergency. But, curiously, a file where the options remain very open. Abroad, as announced last week, but also Italy.
Giovanni Malago explained it on Monday October 16 in Mumbai, during the report of the Milan-Cortina 2026 organizing committee before the 141st session of the IOC: the Italian government no longer wants to hear about a renovation of the historic track of Cortina d'Ampezzo, built for the Winter Games in 1956. The Italian leader confided that the request had been made to him two days earlier to definitively bury the project.
But, surprise, the Italian option no longer seems completely ruled out. Never late for a change of heart, the government of Giorgia Meloni would have changed its mind. The prospect of seeking abroad what could exist at home would no longer be considered as attractive.
Certainly, the Italians have not crossed out the Austrian (Igls, near Innsbruck) and Swiss (Saint-Moritz) options from their notes. But the trend would now be towards a national solution.
Two choices are mentioned: Cortina d’Ampezzo and Cesana. The first is known: the Eugenio Monti track, a vestige of the past whose reconstruction cost has continued to rise since the application phase. Abandoned last week, it has just returned to the discussion, but in a version low cost.
The second choice, the Cesana track, in Emilia-Romagna, had never before been mentioned among the options. Not really surprising, since this equipment built for the Turin Winter Games in 2006 has no longer worked since the Olympic event. The machinery used for its refrigeration was dismantled after the Games.
Tuesday October 24, the Cesana option was widely discussed. It could even quickly move to the top of the pile. Its restart is estimated at 34 million euros, covered by the State. The work could be completed within a year. After the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games, the track would see a new life, with the installation of a high-level national center for bobsleigh, skeleton and luge, a training center for young people and a fun park for board sports. Heritage, a very popular concept in Lausanne.
The organizing committee announced it in a brief press release published at the end of the meeting: a series of evaluations will soon be carried out. Its conclusions will be communicated “ within the deadlines agreed with the IOC. " When ? Mystery.
Less than 28 months before the event, the sky still does not seem clear. And it could well bring clouds over the organizing committee. The Italian press reports that the Veneto Court of Auditors has opened an investigation into the reasons, and especially the cost, of the abandonment of the project to reconstruct the Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The magistrates want to understand why it took so long to realize that the project was not viable. They want to find out why the call for tenders for the runway renovation work was unsuccessful. Finally, they are curious to learn a little more about the amount of public money already spent on the project. To date, a complete loss.
