In the office behind the reception of the Hotel Menardi, Michael Zanatta carefully opens the shipment from the municipal archives of Cortina d’Ampezzo. The blue color is lightened, otherwise the 70-year-old Swedish flag is in good condition.
When the 1956 Olympics opened, somewhere in Cortina beckoned to welcome Sixten Jernberg, Sigge Ericsson and the 65 athletes of the Swedish squad that won ten medals.
– And the Swedes lived here in our hotel, says Michael Zanatta.
He offers a cup of espresso from the hotel bar and disappears for ten minutes. When he returns, he is holding a piece of paper in his hand. It is a diplomatic thank you letter from the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK).
“With a few rings for the Cortese Ospilita durante VII, the Olympic Games in Vernali”
(Thank you for your kind hospitality during the seventh Winter Olympics).
“I knew we had this somewhere,” says Michael Zanatta, wondering if we know who the people who signed the letter are.
You can see Prince Bertil, the SOK chairman at the time. Also vice chairman Bo Ekelund. With the help of the Swedish Olympic History Association we later managed to identify the treasurer Carl Albert Ledin and the secretary Sten Svensson.
Michael Zanatta calls his 88-year-old grandmother Franca. She examines the document and smiles at the memory.
“I was 17 years old and was allowed to take part in the medal ceremony,” she says.
The Menardi family had lived in Cortina since the end of the 19th century and, among other things, ran an inn where they rented out horses. Through her grandson, Franca Colli tells us about the difficult times during the world wars. In the 1950s, the family decided to expand the hotel business, and the 1956 Olympics gave it a boost.
Grandma still lives in the hotel building and continues to participate in the daily work.
– She helps with laundry every day and then takes care of the salary payments. The old beats are in. It’s fantastic, says Michael Zanatta.
It’s a real sports family who runs the hotel not far from the arenas where the new Winter Olympics have just begun.
Michael’s father Ivano Zanatta played ice hockey for Italy at the 1992 Albertville Olympics. He coached China at the Beijing Olympics four years ago and is an assistant coach for France at this year’s Games.
Another relative, Antonio Menardi, who played for Italy at another home Olympics, Turin 2006, and Michael’s brother Luca are part of this year’s Italian ice hockey squad.
For those interested in hockey, Michael Zanatta’s name may even sound familiar. During his ice hockey career spanning over 20 years, he represented the Italian national team and clubs such as Lugano and Basel in Switzerland and his hometown of Cortina.
“I played with a lot of Swedes,” he says, telling us that he was born in Toronto, Canada, so his favorite player is Swedish.
– Mats Sundin, he says. What a player.
It’s only been two years Michael Zanatta put the skates on the shelf. He now runs the family hotel business and is looking forward to another Olympics in Cortina.
– There are people who complain and think that the city is noisy, but I think it can be tolerated. I cheered when we won that vote against Sweden in 2019. The Olympic Games will be a great way to introduce Cortina to the world. It’s the best possible advertising – and you don’t have to pay for it, he says.
Cortina is known for its sun, beautiful mountains, skiing, luxury shopping, jetsetters and the James Bond film “A Deadly Perspective”. Olympia delle Tofane, the Olympic alpine slope, is also the favorite slope of many downhill skiers in the World Cup.
“I can’t imagine a better place to live,” says Michael Zanatta, hoping that the Olympics will help business thrive like in 1956.
During these Olympics It was not Sweden, but parts of the Swiss squad who took up the hotel, but this time too the family will be visited by Swedish stars, as the SOK held press conferences here with the gold medalists Sara Hector and Niklas Edin.
Michael Zanatta will leave Cortina for a few days to go to Milan and watch his brother play ice hockey.
And how will things go for Italy against Three Kronor?
– I’m afraid that the Swedes below will step on the gas and run us over. “They have so many good players,” Michael Zanatta said.
Read more:
The torchbearer “fell” over the microphone cable – 70 years later the Olympic Games are back in Cortina
