The light is in sight in Cortina. Just completed and covered in ice, the sliding track was inaugurated, ten months before the opening of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, in the presence of Italian Transport Minister Matteo Salvini and the President of the Veneto region Luca Zaia. The first athletes were able to run it on Tuesday. In total, there will be 60, from bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, to test it during the week to ensure that it meets all the conditions necessary for the competition. Which, barring any twists and turns, should result in essential pre-approval for the Games. "It's really exciting because it gives us a chance to really get to know the track, and be able to understand the lines", confided American luger Chevonne Forgan before this decisive week.
Simico, responsible for infrastructure for the 2026 Winter Games, specifies that this track, 1749 meters long, has 16 turns and is raced at an average speed of 145 km/h. " It is a miracle to have delivered this project on time, 305 days after its launch, something made possible by the tireless work of the 35 companies involved", underlines Fabio Saldini, the boss of Simico, quoted by AFP. "It was a real challenge, but we managed to turn a problem into a model", welcomes the president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, Ivo Ferriani.
