Milano Cortina, 1,000 days to go before the Italian Olympics: “We’ll be ready, and in the meantime the old bobsleigh track is gone”

To arrive at a great creation, you have to start from a great destruction, and a thousand days before the inaugural ceremony of the Milan Cortina Olympics comes the announcement of a major demolition: “We are satisfied with the work done so far and we are also happy to be able to announce the conclusion of the first construction site, i.e. the controlled demolition of the “Eugenio Monti” bobsleigh track in Cortina” he claims Luigivalerio Sant’AndreaCEO of Società Infrastrutture Milano Cortina which oversees 73 works related to the 2026 Italian Winter Olympics. A more than symbolic deadline, and an act of breaking with the past that heals “a wound”, as he calls it Giovanni Malagò, president of the Milano Cortina Foundation, recalling the miserable end of the bobsled track created for the 1956 Games. Now destroyed, to be reborn, amid a thousand objections about its post-Games usefulness, but strongly desired in this new climate that has grown up around the Italian project . “This will allow the tender for the construction of the new Sliding Center to be published in June” Sant’Andrea assesses, while Malagò confirms the estimate of the costs of the runway at 85 million euros. Another type of demolition, without debris but with many consequences, had taken place in recent weeks, when the Milan Fair was chosen as the venue for speed skating despite the pressure from Turin with its 2006 Olympic Oval.

Zaia: “A decisive change of gear”

Of course, it is easier to remove the remains of the abandoned runway than to build a new one in time for the inaugural ceremony on February 6, 2026. But the greatest guarantee, even more than the bulldozers that get underway almost four years after the assignment to the Italy, is the harmony boasted by the various realities involved, from politics to the territories: “For some time there has been a marked change of gear, the institutions involved in the organization of these Olympic and Paralympic games are looking in the same direction” assures the president of Veneto, Luca Zaiawhile the minister of sport Andrea Abodi he maintains: “We have recovered some time invested not well, now other partners will arrive in the next few weeks to join the Cortina 2026 family. I believe that the objectives will all be achieved. In the last few control rooms important decisions have been made in terms of of infrastructure and competition venues, but above all, what emerges is the spirit of collaboration between all the stakeholders. In these thousand days, together with the Foundation and the Infrastructure Company, the institutions involved will demonstrate the efficiency of the organizational machine”.

Andrea Varnier: “Our sustainable and impeccable Games is the challenge of Milano Cortina”

by Francesco Saverio Intorcia and Francesco Manacorda

February 27, 2023

Varnier: “1000 days? We work with dates”

He is convinced that the celebration of the 1000 days is not just a promotional occasion Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation: “It’s not a habit to celebrate the 1000 days left until the opening, it’s not a way of communicating. We work with dates and the dates are important: February 6, 2026 is the opening ceremony. There’s a timetable. And we’ll be ready to go.” Malagò is also committed to the fact that there will be no delays, while Sant’Andrea articulates: “To date, the timetable that we have given ourselves has been respected, thanks to the commitment of the government control room and all the entities involved. In the next control room direction at Palazzo Chigi, we will close the update of the intervention plan approved in September 2022, in consideration of the agreements expressed by all the administrations involved. This means that we will then be able to proceed with even greater efficiency and speed in carrying out the works”.

“Let’s bring the Games back to their natural cradle, the Alps”

There is time (not much) to see the organizational machine at work. But in the meantime, the thousand days also serve to remember the setting that Italy is called upon to restore to the Winter Olympics, after the scandalous Sochi 2014 edition, tainted by doping in the favorite location of Putin, after the freezing PyeongChang and the Beijing edition dominated by the Chinese Covid protocol: “Italy has all the credentials to organize a unique edition. We are bringing the winter games back to their natural cradle, the Alps, involving all the territories starting from the youngest. The concept of a widespread Olympics is one of our strengths” recalls Varnier. So not only Milan and Cortina, but also the Valtellina of Bormio and Livigno, the Trentino of Val di Fiemme, the Alto Adige of Anterselva for the first time Olympic after having trained generations of winter champions (and not, seen sinner). “We will continue on this path” promises Sant’Andrea, “in order to allow the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games to be a great sporting, social, cultural and economic opportunity for Italy that will leave an important legacy on the territory”.