Work is scheduled to begin later this week on a sliding center outside Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, and it has become “one of the most controversial Olympic venues in recent years,” according to Les Carpenter of the WASHINGTON POST. At a time when the IOC is "stressing 'sustainability' to its host cities," execs have "voiced concerns about whether Milan-Cortina is plunging into a financial debacle in the name of national pride.” They see this new track, which carries a price tag of about $87M, as an “unnecessary extravagance, destined to become the kind of rotting husk of broken concrete the IOC no longer wants as its legacy.” However, local politicians are "not concerned about costs because the alternative is to move the Olympic sliding events to Austria, Switzerland or maybe even Lake Placid,” which would make this the first Winter Games to host competitions in another country. Sliding centers are “among the most complicated” facilities built for Olympic Games, as they are "expensive, take time to build, cost a lot to maintain and don’t have much purpose beyond an Olympics.” The previous Cortina track, built for the 1956 Games, closed in 2008. Milan-Cortina organizers “planned to rebuild the track,” but preparations for the Olympics “fell behind” due to the pandemic. With other building for the Games "slow to get started," the IOC “kept pushing Milan-Cortina officials to abandon the sliding project.” However, politicians have “demanded to keep the Olympic sliding events in the country” (WASHINGTON POST, 2/14).
