Rome (AFP) – Italian 2026 Winter Olympic organisers named American ski resort Lake Placid as their “Plan B” on Friday should work on the new bobsleigh slope at Cortina d’Ampezzo not be ready in time. The next Games is spread over two venues, with Milan hosting the ski events and Cortina the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions.
After concerns, Cortina is officially back on track to confound doubters and win its race to be completed for the upcoming Olympics only 13 months away. The more upbeat vibe around Cortina will come as a relief to all Italian fans of winter sliding sports, and also the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni.
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After initially picking Cortina d’Ampezzo following the awarding of the 2026 Winter Games to Italy, work only began on the slope last February, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning that no such venue had ever been built “in such a short time.” Cortina’s role as a 2026 venue was in major doubt when financial backing failed to appear after it was chosen to be one of the two venues for the next Games. That forced organisers back in October 2023 to concede defeat and — in a first in the history of the Winter Games — start looking at hosting the bobsleigh and the other two sports in a different country.
That eventuality now looks to have been averted despite the precautionary naming of two-time former Winter Olympic venue Lake Placid as Cortina’s emergency back-up plan. “Lake Placid is our official plan B,” the 2026 organisers confirmed. “But only in the event that we can’t go to Cortina, a situation that has been ruled out by the reassuring information that continues to come in on the progress of the work.”
Despite its vastly shorter timeframe to be completed for the Games, work is bang on schedule, with 67 percent completed, assured Simico, the company overseeing the Olympic’s construction projects, last month. They added they were on target to get the slope provisionally cleared for use in March.
Lake Placid, 6000 kilometres from Cortina in New York State, has already held the Winter Games in 1932 and 1980. Organisers of the 2026 edition of the winter sporting feast were only obliged to name an alternative venue as the practice stipulated in IOC rules. Lake Placid in New York state was chosen as a super-sub ahead of two closer to home options – Swiss ski resort St Moritz and Innsbruck in Austria.
© 2024 AFP
