Although the president of Italy’s Veneto region claims the track being rebuilt for the bobsled, luge and skeleton events for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games is ahead of schedule, The International Olympic Committee has set a deadline for the end of next month for pre-certification of the track with a backup plan to move the events across the pond to Lake Placid, New York if they fail to finish in time.
Currently there are 180 people are working from 6 am to 1 am, 7 days a week to revamp the 100 year old sliding center in Cortina and the first ice is scheduled to be laid down in March. The project is estimated to have cost $90 million. The IOC has issued a deadline for the end of March for pre-certification of the track.
In keeping with cost-cutting reforms promoted by IOC President Thomas Bach, the majority of the Olympic infrastructure for the 2026 Winter Games will use existing venues which has scattered events across Northern Italy. If they miss their deadline, the events will spread a bit farther afield all the way to the Olympic Sports Complex located at the foot of Mount Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid, New York.
Time will tell if they can get their venue up to snuff before the deadline, if not we may see some Olympic action stateside in 2026.
