Behind every sporting success and record at this year’s Olympic Games will be a whole series of new and relatively hidden technologies. A number of innovative procedures will be premiered in Italy.
One of the traditional Olympic sports is, of course, ice hockey and speed skating, which will take place in Milan’s new multifunctional PalaItalia Santa Giulia arena and on the improvised sports fields of the Fiera Milano Rho fairground.
It should be noted that in this case the organizers are going to the bone and will, with a bit of exaggeration, pour plaster on Santagiuli shortly before the final matches. The Italians can’t keep up and the newspapers are full of it.
Hard vortex ice without bubbles
In any case, speed skaters will try to break records in Milan on a 400-meter long mobile speed track – one of the largest of its kind – with the innovative Realice technology. It consists of 287 kilometers of cooling pipes, and the manufacturer will try out special ice preparation procedures here.
In order for the surface to be as hard as possible, there must be no hidden bubbles and the water must freeze slowly. This is most often achieved by slowly cooling water with a temperature of up to 60 °C. At first glance, it looks like a paradox, but there is a reason for it, the warmer the water, the less it has the ability to hold gases, which create microscopic bubbles when it freezes and the ice is fragile. And at the same time, the longer the water freezes, the stronger its crystalline structure will be.
Mobile speed skating rink for the 2026 Olympics with 287 kilometers of cooling lines
Therefore, high-quality ice for sports matches is usually produced by applying warm water to the initial rough ice by machine, which creates a final very durable and smooth surface. However, Realice uses vortex technology, which removes the gas from the water in a mechanical way – by special swirling. Thanks to this, heating can be dispensed with, and ice production is more efficient and cooling is more economical, also for the reason that the ice can have a slightly higher temperature while maintaining quality.
Realice is a partner of this year’s Olympics, so if it lives up to its promises, with a little bit of luck (and heart), we should expect shorter times on the ice surface.
Curling without bumps thanks to laser leveling
The ice will not only be precise for skaters and hockey players in Milan, but also for other sports, for example in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The Engo IcePanther and IceTiger electric machines for ice recovery will take care of this and, according to available information, also precision optical leveling (LLS).
Engo machines will treat the ice at the Olympics
It works roughly in such a way that a laser projector located on the handrails projects a reference plane onto the surface, and the receiver on the wheel automatically controls the knife with millimeter accuracy. This is absolutely key for curling in particular.
A network of smart snowmaking machines
Machines from Enga will also be able to operate autonomously, and finally the snow cannons in Bormio and Livigno will be smart, where athletes will compete in disciplines ranging from alpine skiing, freestyle and snowboarding.
Alpine resorts can no longer make do with natural snow alone, TechnoAlpin has therefore prepared for the Olympics a kind of distributed network of interconnected works studded with sensors that will continuously measure key parameters and send everything to the central control software ATASSplus.
A network of smart works directed by ATASSplus software
If the temperature in any sector of the slope drops below the limit value and the wind is within the limit, the system will automatically launch specific cannons. As soon as conditions worsen, it immediately shuts them down. This eliminates the waste of water and energy to produce poor quality snow and slush.
Snowfarming a rolby s lidary
So-called snow farming will be (actually already is) a matter of course, which today is a necessary prerequisite for most low-lying winter sports areas, including Livigno. It consists in storing snow from last winter or the frosty season in special excavations, in which they are covered with geotextiles, sawdust and other material.
The snow can then last for many months in a similar way as it used to be in underground glaciers, where floes from frozen ponds and rivers were collected. In the 21st century, everything is controlled again by a network of smart sensors, and snow farming can respond better to, for example, temperature fluctuations.
SnowSat lidar snowmobiles compare the snow cover with a digital terrain model to determine the actual snow depth without contact measurement
But just making snow is not enough, that’s why snowmobiles also rush onto the slopes, which today are armed not only with GPS – that goes without saying – but also with precise detectors for measuring the depth of snow either under the machine or in front of it using a lidar and comparing it with a digital terrain model from the summer months. The snowmobile operator can then immediately detect weak spots on the slope on the on-board computer and can adjust them. SnowSat technology can do it, for example.
Transmitters in the ankles, airbags under the jersey
Finally, we must not forget the sensors that the athletes will have directly on themselves or on their equipment – for example, on bobsleds. As a rule, it is a radio transmitter with gyroscopes, RFID/UWB position measurement, GPS and other sensors for inertial navigation, which transmits current position and tilt data to the headquarters, and we can then monitor the statistics on our TV screens, how fast and where exactly who is located
In the case of hockey matches, even smart pucks are not unusual anymore, so the studio can accurately track not only their movement, but also the goals scored.
Ski shells with airbag from Dainese
Already years ago, the International Olympic Committee boasted of airbag technology for the most demanding skiing disciplines and the Super-G. They are developed by Dainese, for example, they are extremely thin, so you practically don’t recognize them on a skier.
However, if the athlete gets into a tight spot and starts doing rolls, for example on Super-G, the IMU unit (gyroscope/accelerometer) captures everything at a speed of up to 1000 Hz, the cartridge releases the gas and turns the vest into a shell up to several centimeters thick, which protects the ribs and soft tissues of the chest.
It will be the Olympics of drones and anti-drone protection
As in previous Olympics, we can expect an even greater deployment of FPV drones with cameras that capture the skiers in attractive shots.
It can also be expected that visitors will also want to take off with their quadcopters. Therefore, there will be no shortage of anti-drone and infrared jamming and detection systems in the campuses, and official aircraft will most likely have a dedicated and secured communication band.
One of the security partners of the Olympics is the defense corporation Leonardo, with a wide portfolio of technology, starting from secure communication and ending with drones and solutions to fight against hostile ones. So we can expect a kind of imaginary anti-drone dome over critical places, which will prevent the penetration of amateur aircraft and possible provocations, for example by foreign state actors, by various passive and active means.
We’ll see how it turns out in practice, because foreign drones over Europe – near airports and other strategic infrastructure – became a reality already last year.
Precision cameras for measuring records
Finally, we must not forget the timer. The partner of the Olympic Games 2026 will once again be Omega, which will bring high-speed cameras to Italy with a frame rate of up to 40,000 Hz. They scan the finish line and can tell the winner from the silver medalist with the accuracy of today’s records.
The mentioned sensors and various tags that the athletes will have on themselves will also help the referees in measuring the time. We will tell you exactly how it works in one of the following articles.
