The International Olympic Committee on Friday moved to shut down suggestions that Italy could still manage to stage ice sliding events at its home 2026 Winter Games.
Organizers of the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics acknowledged last month that bobsled, luge and skeleton events are set to be raced in neighbouring Austria or Switzerland after scrapping a delayed and increasingly costly plan to revive the storied and scenic Cortina sliding track.
But Italian national and regional government officials have recently suggested that organizers could renovate another mothballed track in Cesana, which was used for the 2006 Turin Winter Games.
That would still cost tens of millions of euros (dollars) but less than the Cortina plan. The Olympic body cited the lack of a viable future for the Cesana track which already led it "to be abandoned only six years" after the 2006 games. "The IOC has been very clear over the last years that no permanent venue should be built if there is not a clear and viable legacy plan," it said, reiterating that at such a late stage "only existing and already operating tracks must be considered." That likely means Swiss resort St.