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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) just announced its selection of Italy to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. The country received the majority vote over competing bidder, Sweden, making this the second time Italy has hosted the world’s biggest snow-sports competition in 20 years and third time in total. The 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Torino and the 1956 games were held at Cortina d’Ampezzo–a ski resort in the northern region of the country. Sweden has yet to host a single Olympic games.
The sporting competitions will take place in the host city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Milan will house the indoor events like figure skating and ice hockey while the ski and snowboard events will take place at the resort roughly 250 miles away. In an attempt to avoid developing new venues and the costs associated with it, the IOC requested bids from countries with existing infrastructure. Although Sweden stated it would team up with Latvia to avoid building a new bobsled track, the Milan-Cortina venues proved to be more advantageous.
Along with its existing infrastructure, bringing the Winter Olympics back to a traditional snow-sports country will provide real snow for the skiing and snowboarding events and also help keep operational costs down. A win-win for the country and athletes.
