The soap opera continues. It takes a strange turn. A week after a meeting of the IOC Executive Board where it was repeated, once again, the wish of the international body to see the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games contested on a lead abroad, the Italian government took a position on Wednesday December 6 for an opposite solution.
Andrea Abodi, the Italian Minister of Sports, took advantage of a board meeting of the organizing committee to recall his government's priority: a track in Italy. “ We will examine the issue in the coming days with Giancarlo Giorgetti (the Minister of Finance), and we will untie the knots, he told the media in response to a question about the possibility of using the historic Cortina d’Ampezzo track. But I am more than confident. There will be economic and technical evaluations and we will give the organizing committee clear directives, in agreement with the IOC. »
The words of the Italian minister confirm this: nothing has yet been decided on the Italian side. All options remain on the table, including the most unlikely, the renovation of the Eugenio-Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Its cost, estimated at 150 million euros for a complete overhaul of the equipment, made the IOC scream. Just like the idea of bringing up to date the Cesana track, used for the Turin Winter Games in 2006, but whose last official competition dates back to 2011.
Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games at the IOC, hammered home this last week, on the second day of the meeting in Paris of the executive commission: the Italians must look elsewhere, in a neighboring country, for what they do not have. not at home. The Olympic Summit, organized on Tuesday December 5 in Lausanne, hit the nail on the head. “ The IOC hopes that the final decision to organize the sliding events in an existing and fully functioning center outside Italy will be taken in the near future. insisted the press release from the body.
The Italians know it. But they do not intend to give in to pressure from the IOC. Andrea Abodi took a pinch of salt on Wednesday December 6 to explain the very nationalist position of Giorgia Meloni's government. But he did not fail to point out that the final decision was theirs.
« We are fully collaborating with the IOC, we will find a solution, did he declare. They are the owners of the Games, we are the temporary managers, and must therefore respect the rules of the IOC, which we know. But the IOC has always shown that it understands our concerns and our problems. We will find a solution. »
When ? The Italians keep pushing back the deadline. Next month, at the latest, suggested Andrea Abodi. An answer already heard several times.
