When athletes from around the world arrive in Italy for the Winter Olympics in the next week or so, they’ll be scattered throughout the country’s north.
Six Olympic villages make up Milano Cortina 2026, from the city of Milan all the way to the Antholz Valley.
Planning a large-scale event over such an expansive stretch of the country has come with challenges, including for International Olympic Committee (IOC) staff, who’ve been told to limit trips between clusters to minimize their environmental impact.
“I think initially we all thought, we’ll just have it be a little bit more dispersed because that’s more sustainable,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said on Wednesday, ahead of her trip to Italy next week. “Yes, that is very true. But it has added additional complexities in the delivery of the Games.”
While Coventry said that she believes it was the right decision to spread out the Games’ footprint in Italy by using mostly pre-existing venues, it’s a model the IOC plans to review after the Olympics.
“We’ve got to find the balance between sustainability and making decisions for sustainable reasons, and the balance of experience for fans, for [National Olympic Committees], for athletes,” she said.
That includes trying to measure the cost of spreading out the Games’ footprint, and looking at what it would cost if some disciplines were dropped from the Olympic programme.
CBC Sports senior contributor Chris Jones says the Olympic hockey rink won’t be fully finished for the start of Milano Cortina 2026, as he gives an inside look at the host cities’ preparations three weeks from the Opening Ceremony.
An Olympic programme working group that Coventry created when she took office last year is already tasked with reviewing the disciplines that are part of the Olympic Games. It’s examining whether some disciplines should be removed or added, and will consider whether some sports should even cross over between the summer and winter calendars.
The Milano-Cortina Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6. Different parts of the ceremony will take place in four different locations in Italy, including the main venue in Milan’s San Siro Stadium.
Clock ticking on hockey arena, sliding centre
One day before the opening ceremony, the first hockey game will be played in the Milano Santagiulia arena that’s been plagued with construction delays. It’s one of two arenas that will host hockey games at the Olympics, including the semifinal and final rounds of women’s and men’s hockey.
Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, visited the Milano Santagiulia arena on Tuesday. He said there’s still work needed on the concourse, as well as building temporary facilities like locker rooms. He plans to return for another visit on Friday.
“About half of the locker rooms are ready to host the teams,” Dubi said. “The other ones will be ready in a matter of days. When we start competition, it will be ready, no problem with this.”
Concerns over construction delays and ice quality at the Olympic hockey arena in Milan were put to the test over the weekend with players saying there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
He said it’s “all hands on deck” from an estimated 1,600 workers a day in the race to get the arena ready for the Games.
“Hats off to all those that could pull out such a venue in so little time,” Dubi said. “It was always a complex project. It started late.”
Construction didn’t begin on the arena until 2023. At a test event earlier this month, the facility was very much still in construction mode, from the seats wrapped in plastic to the missing concession stands.
The NHL and NHLPA were on site at the test event, and described it after as “a good trial run” that “provided important insight into the current status” of the rink.
“While challenges are inherent with new ice and a still-under-construction venue, we expect that the work necessary to address all remaining issues will continue around the clock,” they said in a statement earlier this month. “The NHL and NHLPA will continue to monitor the situation, standing ready to consult and advise on the work being done to ensure that the local organizing committee, the [International Olympic Committee], and the [International Ice Hockey Federation] deliver a tournament and playing conditions befitting the world’s best players.”
Meanwhile, work is also still underway on a new sliding centre built in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The venue had been the target of sabotage last year, but organizers were able to get it ready for testing last fall.
“Is there still some work to be done? Yes, a lot,” Dubi said about the sliding centre. “What I’ve been told, and I’m no construction expert, but it’s not complex work. So anything that has to do with any of the systems especially for the track refrigeration, electricity, timing, scoring, all this is in place. Cameras — I’ve seen them — we have great coverage.”
He described the remaining work as “finishing touches” such as concrete pavement for additional tents and other work to get the venue ready for fans.
“They have a lot of people working, so it will be ready,” Dubi said.
No meeting with Trump yet
Coventry is also expected to meet with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance during the Milano-Cortina Olympics, as that country prepares to host the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
When Coventry was elected last year, she said there would be communication with U.S. President Donald Trump early on into her presidency, which officially began in June.
“When it comes to the U.S.A. and L.A., I have been dealing with, let’s say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old,” Coventry said on the day she became the first woman elected to hold the role. “First and foremost, what I have learned is that communication will be key.”
While the IOC has had conversations with the organizing committee for the L.A. 2028 Games, there hasn’t yet been any “formal communication” with the White House, Coventry said on Wednesday.
“We look forward to meeting the vice-president and his team that will be with him in Milano Cortina,” Coventry said.
She’d been asked whether there had been any discussions with the United States or any IOC stakeholders about the next step toward the L.A. Games, given the rising geopolitical tension.
In the past week, Trump introduced and then cancelled proposed tariffs aimed at European countries that are opposed to his desire to take control of Greenland.
The Associated Press also reported earlier this month that Olympic athletes competing in Los Angeles in 2028 will be exempt from a visa ban that affects around 40 countries, but there don’t appear to be exemptions for fans and other Olympic officials from those countries.
Coventry said the IOC keeps a pulse on geopolitics, but it’s not the organization’s role to “comment on sovereignty and political conversations.”
“It is our goal to ensure that we have all of our National Olympic Committees represented at all of our Games, and we will continue to do that in the best way that we can and give support in any of those areas in the best way that we can,” she said.
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