The Winter Olympics are finally back in Europe. In addition to sport, the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo will also focus on sustainability. Can the games in Italy be a role model?
For Felix Neureuther, Alpine skiing world champion from Bormio and slalom winner at the legendary Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel, there is one sporting event that stands above all: the Olympic Games. After the previous games in the Far East, the 2026 Winter Games will return to their sporting home – to the Alps, to Italy.
Olympics in Italy – role model or warning example?
There are great hopes associated with locations such as Cortina d’Ampezzo, Milan, Bormio, Antholz and Livigno: lively winter sports traditions, goosebumps moments in the snow, thrilling duels for gold, silver and bronze and the claim to use existing sports facilities and make the games more sustainable.
That’s why these games are under special observation: Will they become a model for an ecologically compatible future of the Winter Games – or a warning example that even greater solutions are needed for the future viability of the Olympic idea?
Neureuther accompanied them Olympic preparations in Italy
Felix Neureuther has been accompanying the preparations for the Olympics in the Italian Alps for three years. The former Olympian observes structural developments on site, speaks with supporters and opponents, questions decisions and meets athletes on their way to their lifelong dream of the Olympic Games. And he travels to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne and talks to IOC Director Christophe Dubi about visions for the future of the Olympic Games.
Olympics 2026 – high costs and long distances cause discussions
The focus of the documentation is on the areas of tension in these games: the demand for sustainability, the use of existing sports facilities – and at the same time new construction projects, including the controversial bobsleigh and toboggan run in Cortina. Even the International Olympic Committee had classified the construction of a new bobsleigh track as unnecessary. Why was it built anyway?
High costs, interventions in sensitive Alpine landscapes and long distances between competition venues are causing discussions. There will be long distance games with distances of up to 400 kilometers between the individual sports venues. What does that mean for the Olympic flair, what does that mean for the athletes?
The former professional skier Felix Neureuther meets athletes whose stories show why the fascination with the Olympics remains unbroken. Among them: US superstar Lindsey Vonn, who returns to the place that shaped her career after a spectacular comeback in Cortina. Your path represents the Olympic dream – working unconditionally towards a moment that can change your entire life.
The documentary “Olympia in Transition?” paints a complex, emotional picture of the Winter Games in Italy – between a lifelong sporting dream, organizational tests and the struggle for future viability. In the end, the open question remains whether the Games in Milan and Cortina in 2026 can really usher in sustainable change for the Olympics.
Source: BR24
January 30, 2026 – 9:14 a.m
