Snowmaking and stockpile help Italy's Livigno get ready for Games

LIVIGNO, Italy, Jan 13 : Livigno in northern Italy will be fully prepared to host Olympic snowboarding and freestyle skiing events next month thanks to its capacity to make and store the key ingredient - snow, local organisers told Reuters.

Situated in the Alps close to the Swiss border, Livigno will need large quantities of snow for the halfpipe structure and the jumps used in the spectacular events.

International Ski Federation (FIS) President Johan Eliasch raised concerns last month about the production of snow in Livigno, accusing the Italian government of being slow to release some of the funding needed.

Davide Cerato, the local area manager for the Milano Cortina Games, said he understood FIS' concerns because there had been some delays in the construction phase at the venue but these had been remedied.

"Now we are over 80 per cent of the snow production and, according to the plan which is to complete the snow production by January 20, we are ahead of schedule," he said.

The Winter Olympics will run from February 6 to 22, with Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomites as the two main bases, and events spread across a large part of northern Italy.

NEW DAM HELPS WITH SNOWMAKING

Livigno will be put through its paces with a test event later in January.

Situated at an altitude of 1,816 metres, locals say the venue still sees plenty of snowfall but its ability to generate more snow has been expanded, with snow cannons fed from a dam with a capacity of more than 200,000 cubic metres.

Fabio Saldini, the CEO of the Milano Cortina 2026 infrastructure company SiMiCo, said the Livigno Snow Park was the most complex project at the Games as four disciplines use the same finishing zone, located close to a car park.

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