Milan Presents 2026 Bid

(ATR) The IOC Evaluation Commission opens a five-day inspection visit of the Milan-Cortina venues proposed in Italy’s bid for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games on Monday.

Led by chairman Octavian Morariu, the IOC evaluation team will spend three days touring venues spread among four clusters throughout the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy. The venue visits will be followed by discussions among the IOC, Milan-Cortina 2026 and CONI representatives in Italy’s second largest city.

The IOC and Milan-Cortina 2026 officials will open the week with a joint news conference at the Palazzo delle Grandi Stazioni in Venice on Monday afternoon. The group will then head north to the 1956 Olympic ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, where women’s alpine skiing, curling and sliding events are being proposed. Cortina is preparing to host the 2021 Alpine Ski World Championships, so various lift and infrastructure improvements should be of interest to the IOC group.

A ride up Cortina’s Rumerlo chairlift, which ascends along the venerable Olympia delle Tofane downhill track is planned for Tuesday, although persistent rain is in the forecast. A tour of the future Fiames Olympic village and biathlon facility in Alto Adige to the north is also scheduled.

The proposed venues of Bormio and Livigno – slated for men’s alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding – are on the agenda for Wednesday prior to the group arriving in Milan. A tour of Milan’s San Siro Stadium – proposed for the opening ceremony – gets activities underway on Thursday morning.

Official meetings between the IOC Evaluation Commission and Milan-Cortina 2026 begin on Friday morning at the Palazzo Reale.

The team’s working visit to Italy, April 2-6, comes two weeks after the inspection of the proposed Stockholm-Are 2026 venues, Milan-Cortina’s Swedish opponent.

The commission’s primary responsibility is to deliver an evaluation report to assist IOC Members in selecting the 2026 host city. It is based on information provided by the candidates, assessments by technical advisors and the commission’s visits to each city.

The report will address a wide range of relevant issues and technical matters, including the sustainability andlegacy value of their proposals, its impact on the natural environment, and the Games experience of the athletes, media, spectators and other participants. It will offer a consensus opinion on the opportunities and strengths of the two candidatures.

There are three IOC members among the 13-member evaluation team. Joining the Romanian Morariu, a member since 2013, are Norwegian Kristin Kloster Aasen and Chinese Olympic speed skating champion Hong Zhang.

Additionalmembers of the team include bobsleigh and skeleton secretary general Heike Groesswang, representing ASOIF, Czech NOC vice-president Roman Kumpost, representing ANOC, and American two-time Paralympic alpine skier Marianna "Muffy" Davis, representing the International Paralympic Committee.

The former president of the PyeongChang 2018 organizing committee Hee-Beom Lee, along with Argentine Jose Luis Marco, Canadian Tim Gayda and Americans Grant Thomas and Steve Wilson round out the team.

IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi and associate director of Olympic candidatures Jacqueline Barrett also lend their expertise.

The original Italian bid joined together Milan, Cortina and Turin, but collapsed last September because of divisions between the three city halls. Italian officials claim that while the national government will not provide funding for the bid, financial support from Veneto and Lombardy, along with private funding, will be sufficient.

Italian NOC president Giovanni Malago and some politicians have insisted that the bid is low cost, takes advantage of existing infrastructure divided among four venue clusters and is sustainable with focus on the environment. They have trumpeted Cortina and the surrounding mountain resort as a proven hub for winter sports and described Milan as currently the most representative city of Italy with substantial experience hosting major events.

Considerable costs are likely required to rebuild a speed skating oval in the Val di Fiemme cluster, in addition to the Eugenio Monti Olympic bobsleigh track in Cortina, which was originally constructed in 1923, but has been closed since 2008.

The 2026 Olympic Winter Games host will be elected at on June 24 at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne.

Reported by Brian Pinelli.