“I will never regret having done this beautiful thing, I confirm that it will be the best Winter Olympics ever, but it is an ordeal.” The president of Coni and the Milano-Cortina 2026 Foundation Giovanni Malagò yesterday in Piazza Duomo in Milan to light up with the mayor Beppe Sala and the governor of Lombardy Attilio Fontana “The Games Tree” which lights up Christmas under the Madonnina does not hide the ‘irritation.
The Foundation’s board of directors has just closed, the (increasingly) thorny issue of the track for bobsleigh races is on the table, the vote on the new one has been postponed again after the control room in Rome shuffled the cards the night before. Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini surprisingly relaunched the “plan A” of the track in Cortina, discarded because the costs exceeded 100 million. «The MIT will take charge of a proposal that will not cost the Italians a cent more», a light project. Forza Italia deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani defends the reactivation of the Cesana track in Turin, and above all «that the Games remain in Italy». While the IOC awaits “a final decision in an already existing and fully functioning center outside Italy”. Option supported by Malagò. «We are waiting for someone to hand us the keys, we would be happy if he were in Italy otherwise we will have to organize ourselves abroad – he reiterated yesterday by setting the deadlines -. On Cortina and Cesana we are waiting for the papers, the deadline is December 13th and we will evaluate it in the board of directors on the 19th. Authoritative government representatives have already expressed their opinion, the Foundation will carry out an objective and aseptic examination on the basis of a piece of official paper which we do not have now.” The “final and non-postponable” deadline for the choice, “in agreement with the IOC” is January 30th. The Foundation has been investigating the hypotheses abroad for some time now, Switzerland (with Sankt Moritz, in pole position), Austria (Innsbruck), Germany (three plants) and even the United States with Lake Placid have provided the dossiers. 6,237 km from Milan. «The USA? Madness” for Sala. It has already happened that a race was held far from the host country, in 1956 the riding races took place in Stockholm, 15,706 km from Melbourne, due to the quarantine laws for horses in Australia. The surfing hypothesis for the Paris 2024 Olympics in Tahiti, in French Polynesia (at 15,796 km) was wrecked yesterday: risk of damage to corals.
