2026 Winter Olympic Organizers Approve Proposal to Rebuild Bobsled Track
Local committee says it will keep open a ‘Plan B’ to have events held outside of Italy
Posted On: January 30, 2024 By :Organizers of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games insisted on Tuesday at a board meeting that they will host sliding events by spending $89 million on rebuilding an old track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, continuing their long dispute with the International Olympic Committee as the IOC insists on having events held elsewhere.
The local organizing committee for the 2026 Games did say it would keep open a “Plan B” in case the new venue is not ready by March 2025. Parma-based construction company Impresa Pizzarotti & C. has offered to rebuild the track for $89 million. If the Cortina track project is approved, construction would start with less than two years to go before the Games and less than a year before IOC-mandated test events.
“It is not acceptable for the bobsled races to take place outside Italy,” Deputy Premier Antonio Tajani said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “We will do everything to achieve the goal.”
Opened in 1923 and used for the 1956 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina, the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre track has been closed since 2008 because of rising maintenance costs and then dismantled last summer to make way for a new facility. If the contract for the sliding center is signed “it would confirm the original masterplan” for the Olympics, the Milan-Cortina committee said.
But the IOC said earlier this month it expected sliding events to be held outside of Italy to save money spent on a venue it feels would not be in line with its newfound emphasis on financial savings.
“Our position is unequivocal,” Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said after an IOC Executive Board meeting. “We from the very beginning felt that this venue (in Italy) was extremely complex in terms of cost, legacy and timing. We have promoted the use of an existing track.”
Bids have come in to host sliding events in 2026 from Austria, Switzerland and — somewhat surprisingly — the United States. The New York State Olympic Regional Developmental Authority had proposed bobsled, luge and skeleton be held in Lake Placid as a solution to the long-running drama in Italy. Lake Placid underwent extensive renovations at all its winter sports venues over the past few years as part of preparations to host the 2023 World University Winter Games and the Mt Van Hoevenberg Sliding Center track is considered to be one of the world’s most technically challenging.
Italian luger Armin Zöggeler, who won medals at a record six consecutive Winter Games, said using either of the tracks in Austria or Switzerland would not make sense because neither facility is ready for a modern Olympics. Zöggeler said the finish area near Innsbruck is too short and needs an expensive renovation and the naturally refrigerated track in St. Moritz is too risky to use.
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