Italy’s sports minister defends contested Winter Olympics bobsleigh track

Italy’s sports minister on Tuesday defended the decision to rush to build a bobsleigh track in time for next year’s Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, saying it would turn out to be a “profitable” investment.

Andrea Abodi insisted to reporters in Rome that the decision announced in February 2024 to try to rebuild the Eugenio Monti track in Cortina d’Ampezzo, reversing a previous announcement that the sliding events would be held abroad, would turn out to be the right one.

“We are convinced that the facility… will become a centre of excellence that we will offer, not just for the Games but also afterwards, will be a modern, competitive track which will be every bit as good as other facilities,” said Abodi at a media briefing.

Organisers face the prospect of the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events, for which 12 gold medals will be awarded, being moved to Lake Placid in the United States if the Cortina track is not completed in time for an approval deadline in March.

However International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach and Games organisers said earlier this month that the track would be ready despite construction work only beginning a year ago.

The 120 million euro ($125.4 million) project is controversial both for its short deadline and the environmental impact which has caused uproar among local conservation groups.

It is also the result of a political firestorm created in October 2023 when long-time president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Giovanni Malago told an IOC meeting that the sliding events would have to be held outside Italy after an inital tender for the Cortina project found no bidders.

Italy’s hard-right government quickly got involved and a second tender launched by Simico, the Games’ construction delivery company, ended with Italian construction firm Pizzarotti being the only bidder.

“The track that is being built is on the site of the old track,” said Malago.

“It was an abandoned concrete snake which for two decades posed a real ecological problem. Without the Olympics this problem would have remained for another 200 years.”

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will be held on February 6-22, 2026, across northern Italy.