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Snow, while Italy geared to the Winter Olympics

Snow, while Italy geared to the Winter Olympics

The city of Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the most famous ski areas in Italy, is preparing to organize the 2026 co-moderator’s Olympic Games and to mark a return of the games to one of its traditional European venues for the first time in two decades.

While skiers walking the nearby dolomite slopes and tourists in the middle of the alpine town, the builders work with the Sliding Center for a March period when athletes are to test it for the first time.

The Sliding Center, which will stage the Olympic bob, skeletal and racing competitions, is one of the headaches that faces itself towards the local organizers, which also has to adapt to climate change, which led to natural snow in short supply .

An air view shows the Olympic Rings and the Olympia Delle Tofane route in Cortina, on which the Alpine ski competition of women during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games 2026 in Cortina, Italy, takes place on January 24, 2025. Reuters

Cortina and Italy’s largest northern city of Milan, more than 250 miles away, are the main hosts of the games from February 6th to 22nd, with five other venues being used before a closing ceremony in Verona.

The mayor of Cortina, Gianluca Lorenzi, plays the risk of losing the shell events in the United States against Lake Placid, a global stroke for these sports, which was surprisingly referred to as a long -term solution if things in Cortina should go wrong.

“There are backups for everything, but … to this day there is no longer a plan B for Bob Races because it has been made clear that the sliding end is being built here,” said Lorenzi.

“I’m not worried … Technicians tell us that the center will be ready.”

The International Olympic Committee repeated Lorenzi’s statements last week and repeated that the route would be completed on time.

A techno alpine Snow Cannon is shown in Bormio in action, in which men in Bormio, Italy, Italy, Italy, in which Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games is on January 29, 2025. Reuters

The IOC previously proposed to use existing venues in neighboring Austria or Switzerland, but the Italy’s northeastern region of Veneto and the national government ultimately decided to complete the Eugenio Monti route from Cortina.

After an Italian Bobsleigh racing driver, who won two silver medals at the Olympic Winter Games in Cortina in 1956, has the estimated cost of $ 123 million.

This is part of a 3.4 billion euro budget for the infrastructure associated with the games.

Lorenzi is convinced that the decision to reconstruction was right and argues that Cortina has a tradition in Bobsleigh and houses one of the oldest bob clubs in Italy.

A skier is waiting for a bus in the city center of Cortina, in which the Alpine -Ski competition of women in the Alps -Ski competition of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy, takes place on January 24, 2025. Reuters

“The hope is that … young people practice this sport, and even people from other countries will come here. There can be events that often took place in other countries, ”said Davide Hirschstein, 29 -year -old employee of the local bakery.

Critics argue that the revised Sliding event location is a white elephant due to the limited number of elite competitors at Sliding events and the costs for high venue management costs.

“This center has no future and we will be saddled with it,” said Marina Menardi, the leading activist of a local committee who fought against the project.

There is a worrying precedent. The Sliding Center, which organized the games in Italy in the Northwest region in 2006, was given up a few years after the Olympic Games and is now expected to be dismantled.

Leave it snow

The return of the games to Europe comes at a time when climate change and rising temperatures represent an existential threat to many of the traditional ski centers in the region.

By 2040, only 10 nations can accommodate the snow sports of the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. This emerges from preliminary results from studies by the future HOST Commission of the IOC for winter games.

A study with the Eurac Research Center based in Bolzano in northern Italy showed that the amount of new snow in the Alps had declined by an average of 34% in the period 1920-2020 and the reduction has been accelerated since 1980.

People skiing on a slope in Cortina, host of the city of Milano Cortina’s Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, on January 24, 2025. Reuters

Around 90% of Italy’s skiingists rely on artificial snow compared to 70% in Austria, 50% in Switzerland and 39% in France, according to Environmental Lobby Legambience.

This is obvious in Cortina. Snow pistols and groomers ensure the perfect white of its Skigrainers, including the Olympia Delle Tofane Run, a regular World Cup event location and the course in which the alpine skiing events of women take place.

In addition to cold temperatures, water is the other essential ingredient in the production of snow and the open slopes from early December to April.

It is pumped out of artificial pools and gradually filled in spring and summer.

“We have very careful water management because we know that we have no infinite resources,” said engineer Alberto Gaspari, a technician who monitors the operation of the Cortina slopes and the Cableway.

Snow pistols are provided by the Italian specialist Technoalpin, who provided the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing and is once again used for an outstanding role in securing the snow at the upcoming games in his home nation.

A general view shows the Olympic rings of the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. Reuters

Nemanja Dogo, the company’s managing director, said that less advanced work was necessary this time, since Italian resorts already have the necessary infrastructure.

“Cortina, Bormio, Livigno, all of these goals already had snow production systems,” he said, quoting two of the other Olympic guest centers.

Cortina had a welcome drop in temperature and accompanying snowfall in the last week of January when the one -year countdown for the games moves closer. The Paralympics will follow the same co-moderators in March next year.

The city’s hoteliers are looking forward to an additional exposure that can help to bring tourists to the rugged Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site all year round.

“The expectations are high,” said Michael Zanatta, who runs a family hotel in Cortina. “We are excited and we are sure that the Olympic Games will bring a lot.”

($ 1 = 0.9586 euros)