Spiralling costs and melting snow: Do the Winter Olympics have a future?

On 31 July, the deadline for companies to submit their bid to build Italy’s costly new bobsled track for the 2026 Winter Olympics came and went. 

And not a single construction company came forward.  

The announcement was made by a puzzled SIMICO, the Italian company put in charge of the handling of all Olympics structure, who said that it will now be forced to look on the market for companies able to take on the job.

“It’s not particularly surprising that nobody wants to build a new bobsled track,” said Madeleine Orr, a sport ecologist based in the Institute of Sport Business at Loughborough University London, citing how controversial the project has been since the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo were awarded the honour - and the burden - of hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“I know that the organisers of the Olympics have been concerned about how climate change is going to impact this event,” she added.

In the last two years, the efforts that the cities have undertaken to prepare hosting the Games have also been criticised by the Italian press as too costly and environmentally unsustainable, with many pointing out that the structures built ad hoc for the event will have no use after the end of it.

The new bobsled track - which will have to be built from scratch after the demolition of the old one - is estimated to cost between €93 million and €120 million, according to Veneto’s president Luca Zaia. It will have to be built fast, as the completed track, which can also be used for the skeleton and luge competitions, must be ready by December 2024 for the first test event ahead of the Olympics.

Both the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics are facing a few of the same issues when it comes to climate change, Orr told