The Government does not give up after the IOC’s no to bobsleigh and luge on the Cesana track

Claudio Lenzi-Valerio Piccioni

November 4
– Milan

The bobsled, skeleton and luge track for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics has not yet been chosen, but on that ice the crack between the International Olympic Committee and the Italian Government, which has no intention of giving in, is widening day after day. a portion of the Olympic competitions outside the country. The last back-and-forth took place yesterday, after the IOC’s new “no” to a structure that does not present “a clear and feasible legacy plan”. The reaction of Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani was not long in coming.

The IOC

—

4.20 pm on Friday, while the leaders of the Milano Cortina foundation, the IOC, the Government and Simico (the Games infrastructure company) discuss the progress of the works in the Lombardy capital, a statement is sent from the rooms of the Olympic Committee in Lausanne to the Associated Press agency: “The IOC has been very clear in recent years that no permanent headquarters should be built if there is no clear and feasible legacy plan – reads the note – “consideration must be given only existing and already operational runways”. So not Cesana, with the 33.8 million redevelopment dossier presented last Monday, but the Swiss town of St. Moritz – favorite – or Igls in Austria. “The IOC has also already reminded us that the current number of ice rinks is sufficient for the number of athletes and competitions”. It is clear that from a formal and substantial point of view, the transfer of competitions abroad is not prohibited, but is indeed explicitly permitted (for example, the Stockholm dossier, the candidacy defeated by Milan-Cortina in the challenge for the assignment of the 2026 Games, included the track in Sigulda, Latvia). It is one of the innovations with which the IOC launched its change of line in the direction of a sustainable Olympics and no longer hostage to the “gigantism” that had discouraged several cities from presenting themselves.

The answer

—

But the Government was somewhat surprised by the manner of its position. And the deputy prime minister and foreign minister Antonio Tajani, who had visited the Cesana site just this week declaring his confidence in the hypothesis of a project linked to the relaunch of the Turin 2006 plant, says clearly that “it must be done everything possible for an Italian solution, it is ridiculous to hold races abroad. We trust in Giovanni Malagò, we have the utmost confidence in him, he is an authoritative member of the Olympic Committee and will certainly be able to defend the national interest”. In any case, the IOC must make a decision “after having seen all the cards”, says Tajani. Naturally the topic is very delicate, because the times are really tight, the first test event will have to be scheduled, thanks to the president of the CONI, in March 2025. The attempt is to keep the window of dialogue with the IOC open and for this reason the sports minister Andrea Abodi will undertake an in-depth analysis of the possible scenarios in a time frame, this is certain, which will have to be short, not to say very short.

Seriousness

—

In the end, the Olympic Committee could be a call for seriousness, which does not yet exclude the Cesana solution, provided that guarantees arrive soon from all those involved, including the Government, especially at a time when we also have another problem : the need to find a new location for the anti-doping laboratory in Rome with the risk of moving the Olympic controls abroad, putting at risk the very survival of the structure appreciated throughout the world.