The 2026 Winter Olympics are underway in Italy, after an opening ceremony that featured a strange performance from Mariah Carey. Of course, there were many controversies overshadowing the run-up to the event.
To start with, it must be said that the 2026 Olympics are the most geographically widespread Games in history-- the first to span multiple regions and two host cities: Milan and Cortina, which are about 250 miles apart from each other by road. The action is divided among four main clusters across northern Italy: Milan, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Valtellina and Val di Fiemme. Athletes will live in one of six Olympic Villages throughout the region: Milan, Cortina, Anterselva, Bormio, Livigno and Predazzo. The competition venues span an area covering some 8,495 square miles. Getting between towns could take more than a few hours by car — especially on remote, wintery roads. Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, says spectators hoping to attend events in person should be realistic about the time and distance required to get between venues and should plan accordingly.
In the lead-up to the games, Italian prosecutors investigated corruption, forgery, and abuse of public office in construction tenders, including the Olympic Village and other key infrastructure, leading to raids, arrests, and 74 individuals under scrutiny.
There are a couple of major venues whose completion are going down to the wire. The Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics sliding center and the ice hockey stadium are almost complete, but work is going down to the wire, so they can be ready in time for those events.
Italian officials in Cortina d’Ampezzo procrastinated for several years about whether to use the 1956 Olympic sliding track or build a new one. The IOC was on the verge of forcing the event to be staged in another country when Italy finally decided (just a few years ago) to build a new sliding venue on the grounds of the historic track used in 1956. The IOC threatened to pull the sliding events from Italy if they were not able to stay on schedule for completion of the new venue. That decision meant that fans of bobsledding, luge and skeleton sporting events were forced to invest thousands of dollars buying tickets and accommodations (in Italy) without knowing for sure whether the events would take place in Italy or in another country altogether. After Italy called the IOC's bluff, the IOC was forced to roll the dice on the new Cortina sliding center. The venue's construction has also been mired in environmental disputes due to the destruction of over 100 trees and ballooning costs, with some suggesting it was an unnecessary, unsustainable project.Although the sliding track is ready for competition, many parts of the venue remain incomplete, inconveniencing members of the ticket-buying public.
Milan’s Santagiulia ice hockey venue had an equally tight construction schedule. Slow progress and construction delays at the Santagiulia arena in the southeast of Milan was one of the main headaches in the run-up to the Olympics. The construction delays caused concern within the NHL regarding ice safety and quality. A December test event was moved, and the venue remained at high-risk just weeks before the Olympics, with threats of the NHL pulling out. When the first test hockey matches at the venue were played in mid-January, officials realized that the newly installed scoreboard above the rink was so small that players couldn't see how much time remained on the clock while they were on the ice. International observers also discovered that Milan's two ice sheets will be roughly three feet shorter than NHL regulation rinks. Italian officials could not provide an explanation of how that occurred, as the ice sheets were designed to the current NHL specifications. The main worry revolves around the fact that a shorter-length playing surface endanger the world's best players, who currently play faster and with more physicality than in past Olympic editions. Just five days prior to its first match, there were building materials and dust all over the inside and outside the arena. Rubbish littered the floor, lifts and toilets were covered in plastic wraps, and many areas of the arena (including hospitality boxes as well as food and drink stalls) were unfinished. But by the day of the match, the toilets, elevators and executives suites were ready-- with merchandise stalls being built and posters still being put up a mere hours before the puck dropped.
The only facility that officials failed to complete in time for the games is a new cable car that would be used to transport spectators and athletes to the ski competitions in Cortina. Local organizers requested school closures in the Cortina area to ease the pressure on the local transport system. Olympic officials also capped the number of tickets for events in Cortina, due to the overall lack of transport capacity. Cortina is one of Italy's best-known winter resorts, since it staged the Games in 1956, yet it inexplicably has no rail station and access by the only main road into town can often be slow at peak times. Fans with tickets for Olympic events will no have to leave their cars at designated areas outside of town and take shuttle buses to reach the events.
Construction of other new ski lifts resulted in landslides and severe damage to fragile, high-altitude alpine terrain. The local organizing committee faced criticism for violating sustainability goals, with heavy reliance on artificial snow and massive public expenditure, which is rapidly increasing. In addition, a 55-year-old security guard died of a heart attack during a frigid night at a construction site in Cortina. Furthermore, the construction of the Olympic Village in Milan resulted in concerns over accelerating gentrification and displacement of residents.
No comments:
Post a Comment