MILAN, Feb 1 (Reuters) – The Milan Cortina Olympics will live up to expectations as the world’s biggest winter sports show despite last-minute efforts to get venues including the much-delayed Santagiulia ice hockey stadium ready for next week’s start, the IOC said on Sunday.
Organizers are rushing to complete locations in Milan and the mountain clusters.
On Saturday, Reuters reported that a cable car in Cortina, designed to transport spectators to women’s alpine skiing events, would not be ready for the start of the Games on February 6.
But Olympic officials are confident the venues will be ready for the first Winter Games in the European Alps in 20 years.
“The preparation is going extremely well,” Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, told a news conference. “The team is working very hard. All stakeholders are working very well. We are exactly where we need to be.”
The 2026 Olympic Games will be more spread out than previous winter editions, with mountain clusters in Cortina, Bormio, Livigno and Val di Fiemme, all within hours of the sporting venues in Milan, and with transport, especially in the mountains, one of the organisers’ biggest challenges.
“Yes, it is a little more spread out. The organizing committee has given all stakeholders the best possible opportunity to be as successful as at other Games. We have to see how the Games will unfold,” said Coventry, who is overseeing her first Olympics as president after being elected to the post last year.
Apart from the mountain venues, organizers are doing their utmost to get the Santagiulia Stadium ready in time for the competition, with the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi confident everything will be in place when the puck hits the ice.
A delayed start and slow progress on the construction of the arena, in the south-east of Milan, became one of the biggest headaches in the run-up to the Olympics.
The arena, which will have a capacity of 15,300 people, was only tested in January, with 4,000 fans per match during the Final Four event of the 2025/2026 Italian Championship and Italian Cup.
The Games will also see NHL players return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
“Do we have every space in that location ready? No,” Dubi said. “Is it absolutely necessary for the Games? No. Anything public, anything media or athletes, will be absolutely top notch. Do we still have work? Yes.”
“There’s still a lot of hard work going on, as you say, to really make this a great venue,” he added.
