Bormio downhill course provides stern test looking ahead to Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Games

While the Beijing 2022 alpine race courses remain shrouded in mystery, men’s World Cup ski racers know exactly what they will be up against come Milano-Cortina 2026.

The vaunted Stelvio downhill track, in the Italian Alps of Bormio, is an unrelenting 3.27-kilometer, icy, knee-rattling and shadowy roller coaster ride that leaves racers gasping for breath at the bottom. Racers exceed speeds of 80 miles per hour on the highly demanding Italian course.

In 2026, the future Olympic course is poised to provide athletes with one of the toughest, if not the toughest, Olympic downhill and super-G tests in Winter Games history.

Italian Dominik Paris charged to his record-breaking sixth Stelvio downhill victory this week, 0.24 seconds faster than Swiss overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt. Paris, who has deservedly earned himself the nickname “The King of the Stelvio”, will be 36 if he is still racing come Milano-Cortina 2026.

“It’s very tough, always icy and bumpy – you need very good tactics to bring the speed on the separate splits,” Paris said, about the Bormio course this week. “The bottom is the crazy part where you have less power, your legs are burning, and you have to ski with your mind and that’s what I like about the Stelvio.”

Racers kick out of the start house at an altitude of 2,225 meters and reach speeds of 60 miles-per-hour in less than five seconds before launching off the ‘La Rocca Jump’, a fast and adrenaline-induced start to the nearly two-minute, two-mile course. The signature ‘San Pietro’ jump sends skiers soaring some 50 meters through air, with about 30 seconds to the finish, a critical point setting up the dark and technical lower section of the course.

The Stelvio is a test of physicality and stamina as the second longest on the World Cup, only shorter than the Lauberhorn in Wengen, Switzerland.

Paris, who won the Stelvio downhill for the first time in 2012, claimed victory on consecutive days in 2019, and has also raced to a super-G win on the Italian piste, has been awarded honorary citizenship in Bormio. It would lead one to surmise that the Italian ‘Speed King’ will make every effort to stick around through 2026.

Nothing can be taken for granted on the Stelvio, though. U.S. racer Bryce Bennett, who was brimming with confidence fresh off his first career downhill victory in Val Gardena on Dec. 18, was tossed around mercifully by the Stelvio on Tuesday, never found his race line and finished a highly disappointing 38th, more than three seconds behind Paris. The American elaborated upon the Bormio downhill’s immense difficulty.

“It’s in your face right out of the start, you’re going very fast, very quickly, probably up to 90 mile per hour ten seconds into it,” Bennett said.

“Right out of the gate is an opportunity to just put the hammer down and take a little more risk,” he said. “For those willing to take it, I think you can gain few tenths there.”

The 29-year-old U.S. downhiller added: “It’s so bumpy, rattly and dark.”

Bennett’s teammate Ryan Cochran-Siegle has fared better on the Bormio super-G course, having won his first career World Cup race at the Italian ski resort in 2020. He followed that up with a fourth place on Wednesday. However, in the classic downhill, he could mange no better than 20th this week.

“The turns are big and could be challenging in places, but it also kind of helps you in others,” Cochran-Siegle said.

“With the combination of the jumps and the high speed areas, you get a good rattle through the ski for most of the turn.

“It’s a fun track to ski when you can kind of let go of the fear, and just focus on being nice, smooth and confident on it.”

The Stelvio downhill was inaugurated in 1982 and became a regular World Cup venue in 1993.

While the Milano-Cortina Games Olympic downhill is now just under 1500 days away, the world’s premier ski racers have their sights set on the unfamiliar terrain and unknown characteristics of the Beijing Olympic courses. The men’s downhill will be the first Alpine skiing medal event contested in China on Sunday, February 6.

Bormio super-G cancelled

Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt-Kilde won Wednesday’s super-G in Bormio, however his chance for back-to-back victories never materialized as Thursday’s race was cancelled due to rising temperatures and deteriorating snow conditions.

The decision to cancel the race was made on Thursday morning by the race jury and Bormio organizing committee in the interest of athlete safety. Course workers and volunteers apparently did everything in their power to keep the piste in sufficient race condition, however, ultimately, racing was not feasible.

“The course would probably have held up for the top 10 racers,” said FIS race director Markus Waldner, while noting there was also concern that a full race will not be fair for all starters.

Waldner suggested that the super-G race could potentially be made up in January, in Wengen, Switzerland.

“We’ll try to reschedule an already rescheduled race,” Waldner said. “It is a very tight calendar and we’ve have some COVID cases, so it is difficult. Perhaps in Wengen we can find a solution, if its possible.”

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