The renovation of the ski jumping hills for the 2026 Winter Olympics has already been delayed twice.
The ski jumping venue for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy is completely up for grabs a good year before the event. Jussi Saarinen
Cranes, basic improvement and repair work and a few construction site vehicles.
The ski jumping hills of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy’s Predazzo in the Val di Fiemme valley are in full swing a year before the start of the five-ring Games.
At the beginning of January 2025, at the beginning of January 2025, at least the speed pick-up slope and descent hill for both suurmäki and normalmäki, grandstands and the coaches’ and referee’s tower will be built.
– The Italians have constantly made unfulfilled promises. I am skeptical that the hills will be completed by February next year. It is possible that the Olympic ski jumping and combined events will be canceled and moved to, for example, Austria, says an experienced ski jumping expert who did not want to give his name in an interview.
Predazzo’s renovation was supposed to be completed by the end of summer 2024. The schedule was extended to the turn of the year 2024–25. This schedule didn’t work either, and the latest announced completion date is April-May 2025.
Preliminaries cancelled
The name of the 2026 Winter Olympics is Milan-Cortina, but there are half a dozen venues around northern Italy. Jussi Saarinen
The International Skiing Federation (FIS) tries to organize the so-called preliminaries for the Olympic Games usually about a year before the five-ring trials.
For example, the closing weekend of the cross-country Tour de Ski on the slopes of the Lago di Tesero ski stadium was a kind of pre-race to the Olympics.
Predazzo’s preliminaries were supposed to be held this coming weekend, but they were cancelled.
– The information we received was unexpected and unpleasant, commented Fis’ ski jumping competition director Sandro Pertile in the bulletin sent in June 2024.
The preliminaries are very important in a sport like ski jumping, where the performance places must be 100% in the mire.
– We have been given a binding promise that we can organize Grand Prix tour races in Predazzo in the summer of 2025. The hills will be open for training in the summer of 2025, so that the teams can train and test future Olympic venues, Pertile assured.
An expert contacted by Iltalehti says that Pertile speaks for his position, so to speak.
– According to the latest information, the renovation will be completed either right before the Olympics or it will stretch into the future, as in the Italian way, says the man who has experienced several different Olympic Games on the spot.
Money returns
This is what it looks like in the Predazzo ski jumping center in January 2025. Jussi Saarinen
In April 2023, the price of Predazzo’s hill renovation was announced to be 17 million euros. It is likely that the actual price tag will be more than 20 million euros.
The project is primarily financed from society’s funds.
Predazzo has a HS 109 meter normal hill and a HS 143 meter large hill.
According to Fis’ results archive, the Ski Jumping World Cup was last held in Predazzo in 2012. According to the same source, the Combined World Cup was last held in 2018.
Hill races in the 1991, 2003 and 2013 Val di Fiemme world championships were held in Predazzo.
The jumping hills are located less than ten kilometers east of the Lago di Tesero cross-country skiing stadium.
The basic improvement and repair works of the downhill slopes are at a fairly advanced stage. Jussi Saarinen
Predazzo has a HS 109 meter normal hill and a HS 143 meter large hill. Jussi Saarinen
The World Championships of Nordic skiing have been organized in Val di Fiemme in 1991, 2003 and 2013. Jussi Saarinen