The Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games open on Friday. Twenty years after Turin, Italy is once again preparing to thrill to the excitement of the world's best winter athletes. Jean-Loup Chappelet, honorary professor at the University of Lausanne and a renowned expert on Olympic matters, shares his perspective on this 25th edition, which is full of implications for the future of the Olympic Movement and the event itself.
What place does Italy occupy in the history of the Olympic Movement?
This country is hosting the Winter Games for the third time, and also hosted the Summer Games in Rome in 1960. It is a very sport-oriented country, which generally finishes in the top 10 of the medal table. (9th in Paris 2024, editor's note)CONI was very powerful, somewhat less so today since a reform has taken place and it is no longer responsible for distributing subsidies to national federations; this is now done directly by the Minister of Sport. Historically, Italy has had very powerful IOC members: Giulio Onesti, who was president of CONI and created the Association of NOCs; then Mario Pescante, a former minister who is still an honorary member today; and then Franco Carraro, president of CONI and the football federation, who wields considerable influence in Italy. Today, this is somewhat less the case; we hear less about the Italian IOC members. (there are three of them: Ivo Ferriani, Giovanni Malago and Federica Pellegrini, editor’s note).
What memory do you have of Turin 2006, the last Italian edition of the Games?
The Games were well-organized, with the ice sports in the city and the rest in the mountains. This model was later followed in Vancouver and Sochi. It's worth noting, however, that the bobsleigh track and ski jumps used at the time are now abandoned. On the other hand, the city of Turin benefited greatly from the Games; it transformed its image. This is the main legacy, beyond the sporting facilities: it used to be seen as an industrial city, with the Fiat factories, but it became a cultural center. Today, many tourists visit Turin. There are magnificent monuments, beautiful palaces, a very interesting film museum, an Egyptian Museum that is one of the best in the world, 17 kilometers of covered galleries… Turin benefited greatly from the Olympics.
Does the 2026 edition mark a turning point in the history of the Winter Games given the unprecedented fragmentation of the venue map?
Maybe, maybe not… When the IOC made this choice, there were only two bids: Milan-Cortina and Stockholm-Åre. They preferred Milan-Cortina because, as far as I know, Stockholm was having difficulties signing the host city contract. If there was a turning point, it was perhaps unintentional because the choice was limited to two decentralized bids – there are 600 kilometers between Stockholm and Åre, and the bobsleigh event was originally scheduled to take place in another country, Latvia.
"Ski mountaineering had been knocking at the door for a long time. It's certainly a bit more popular than other forms of skiing, even if it's not comparable to snowboarding at the time."
These Winter Games are the first to incorporate the principles of the Olympic Agenda 2020. What does that change?
The main idea was to use existing facilities. By definition, they aren't all in the same place, which means the Olympic venues are spread out. This not only avoids increased costs but also provides guarantees regarding deadlines. There was work going on until the very last minute in Montreal, Athens, and elsewhere. It's a classic Olympic Games scenario. Using existing facilities avoids this stress of deadlines—normally, because we see the delay with the Milan ice rink. The organizers could have gone further, as there was talk of using the existing bobsleigh tracks just across the border in St. Moritz or Innsbruck, but they chose to completely rebuild the one in Cortina. At Los Angeles 2028, 100% of the facilities are existing. They were missing a venue for canoe slalom. There's only one facility in the United States, in Oklahoma City, so they moved those events to Oklahoma City. They're not going to build anything specifically for that. That's the main idea behind the Olympic agenda. There will also be more events for women, which is perfectly normal.
The Winter Games program includes a new sport, ski mountaineering, which is very rare. Does this reflect a desire to innovate and modernize the Winter Games?
Yes, you could say that. Ski mountaineering has been knocking on the door for a long time. It's certainly a bit more popular than other forms of skiing, even if it's not comparable to snowboarding, which, when it first appeared, opened the Games to a whole generation of participants. The inclusion of ski mountaineering reflects this dynamic of new formats. Biathlon has adapted to become more attractive with mass starts, ice hockey wants to develop 3x3, and so on. There are plenty of ideas because federations realize that the traditional forms of their sport have become less popular among young people.
The Beijing 2022 Games took place in a rather cold, anxiety-inducing atmosphere, and without spectators. Are you confident about the festive atmosphere of the Milan-Cortina Games?
The absence of spectators obviously impacted the atmosphere in Beijing. It was also a major problem for the organizing committee in terms of revenue. The Italians will do everything necessary, and I think it will be a success. Along with the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics, it's one of the biggest sporting events in the world. There's a whole cultural dimension to the Olympics, and here, with Milan, La Scala, the museums, everything the Italians know how to do, the Verona Arena, there's a whole package that will make these Games very attractive.
