Italian Milano Cortina 2026 organizers on Friday named the American ski resort Lake Placid as their substitute venue.
The substitute venue was named to accommodate the bobsleigh event if the new Cortina slope at Cortina d’Ampezzo is not ready in time.
Milano will host the ski events while Cortina will be in charge of the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions for the next Winter Games.
Following initial concerns, Cortina is on track to cofound doubters and win its race to be prepared in the 13-month time left.
The work on Cortina d’Ampezzo, after being awarded the hosting rights, only began in February with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning that no such venue had ever been built “in such a short time”.
The doubts over the venue began after financial backing failed to appear, forcing organizers to concede the venue, and in a first, start looking at a substitute outside the country to host bobsleigh.
“Lake Placid is our official plan B,” the 2026 organisers confirmed.
“But only in the event that we can’t go to Cortina, a situation that has been ruled out by the reassuring information that continues to come in on the progress of the work.”
Simico, an Italian government agency that is responsible for construction projects for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina, said that 67 per cent of the work in completed, adding that they were on course to get the slope provisionally cleared for use in March.
Lake Placid, 6000 kilometres from Cortina in New York State, has already hosted the Winter Games in 1932 and 1980.