Locked out and left alone is how sled athletes from all over the world have been feeling since the beginning of this week. In Germany, it wasn’t just Felix Loch who put his emotions into words. The three-time Olympic champion said that what has been official since Monday is “a bummer”: At the 2026 Winter Games, tobogganing, bobsleigh and skeleton will be outsourced and they will not be allowed to compete for their most important medals in Italy.
“A sad day” for sport, Olympic bobsleigh champion Laura Nolte also wrote on Instagram, “we’ll be sitting in a completely different country doing our thing. This has never happened before in the 102-year history of the Winter Games. I’m just at a loss for words.” The tobogganer Anna Fernstädt made it clear that one feels deprived of the “Olympic spirit”: For everyone who sits on a sled, the Olympics will feel like “a big World Cup, somewhere else” .
Olympic competitions in Germany?
The reason for all the excitement is simple. There will be no ice track in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo; plans for a new building are off the table after years of back and forth. For the athletes affected, it feels like the Olympics are being canceled – but it is also a sensitive issue for completely different reasons. Now an alternative venue is being sought, somewhere outside of Italy. Innsbruck in Austria signals readiness and also seems logical. Only 150 kilometers from Cortina, it is a similar route from both places to Milan.
The German sledging association BSD waved its hand on Monday saying that its own tracks were “not an issue” in the considerations. After the storm damage two years ago, the ice channel at Königssee will not be fully operational again until the end of 2026. And “Winterberg, Altenberg, Oberhof – none of that works,” said BSD board member Thomas Schwab to the Sports Information Service (sid). The distance alone speaks against it.
However, things are quite different in Thuringia. Because on Tuesday night, the regional association rushed forward with a press release: Oberhof was ready for the 2026 Olympic tobogganing competitions. There should be “no bans on thinking about it,” said spokesman Sebastian Lenk to the sid, “we’ll throw our hat in the ring and do it the International Olympic Committee took notice. It’s not just Innsbruck, but there is also the most modern track in the world in Oberhof for toboggan competitions.” The demand: “Take us into account, at least in your considerations.”
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As can be seen from the outside, people in the Thuringian Association were not particularly enthusiastic about the quick cancellation of their own umbrella organization, which is based in Berchtesgaden. This approach is “a bit of a shame,” said Lenk. Schwab could not be reached for a reaction on Tuesday.
On closer inspection, however, the “application” from Thuringia seems to have no chance anyway. Only tobogganing could actually be done here; the track is not suitable for bobsleigh and skeleton sports and there is no push area. An expansion is neither possible nor wanted.
