Sustainability was the watchword when Milano Cortina won the Olympic election against Stockholm Åre 2019. But where should the sport of luge go? The Cortina track used at the 1956 Games was dilapidated and far from being up to standard.
When Italy last hosted the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006, Cesena hosted bobsleigh, luge and skeleton sports, but 10 years later the track was shut down and became a useless white elephant, something the International Olympic Committee wants to avoid.
Postpone the toboggan races to an existing route overseas, perhaps even in Lake Placid on the other side of the Atlantic? No, the Italian solution was to build a completely new route for the equivalent of SEK 1.3 billion.
Now the Eugenio Monti race track, named after the six-time Italian bobsleigh Olympic champion, winds down the mountainside in Cortina, much criticized by some and appreciated by others.
– I think it’s wonderful. “It’s the very latest technology and the drivers should like it,” says 73-year-old Daniela Constatini, who lives just a stone’s throw from the track.
She has lived in Cortina all her life and was three years old when the last Olympic Games were held here.
– Of course I don’t remember that, but I know that the games were good for Cortina and for tourism. “A lot of people came here after the Olympics, and I think that will be the case now,” she says, explaining that she doesn’t mind a few weeks of Olympic congestion.
But everyone is thereNot so happy about the 1,600 meter long colossus made of ice and concrete. In March 2024, the Italian press reported that Cortina’s mayor Gianluca Lorenzi had received death threats because of the trail.
“If you continue bobsledding, we will kill you,” said an anonymous letter to the mayor’s office. He had to live under police protection
Several environmental organizations have reported the construction to the authorities and believe the route will leave a lasting negative impression on the sensitive, scenic area.
At the center of the criticism were the hundreds of larches, which are important for the ecological balance and were felled to make room for the route. From an environmental point of view, it is positive that the ice rink’s cooling system runs on glycol instead of ammonia, but at the same time the energy consumption to keep the ice in good condition is very high.
The operation of the line is estimated to cost around eleven million crowns per year. Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi defended the construction of the track in an interview with The New York Times, saying that Cortina is guaranteed several international championships in the next four years and that good income is also expected from private rental of the track.
Cortina living as DN Batsmen seem less worried about this track remaining unused in the future.
Alberto Menardi and his wife Claudia run a delicatessen in the center of Cortina as well as a hotel and are looking forward to the Olympic Games.
– The day after the opening of the Olympic Games, the hotel was fully booked. “It’s called boom-boom,” he shouts, smiling.
But is the bob really a sensible investment?
– We will hold many championships here and also attract nations that have training camps here. It won’t cover all costs, but it will cover some, says Menardi, and believes the criticism of the environmental impact is exaggerated.
– It’s about 100 trees, 100 trees. . . , he says.
However, he is Concerns about the climate.
– The first snow used to always come in November, but these days we often have to wait until December, says Menardi.
When it comes to the Olympics, the family’s main interest is curling. Thanks for that. Wife Claudia is one of Italy’s best players of all time and has played in five World Cups and eight European Championships for Italy.
The competitions are underway in the Eugenio Monti route, but during the Olympics he caused a stir mainly because of the Ukrainian skeleton helmet. Here, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry tearfully announced to Ukrainian figure skater Vladyslav Heraskevich that he would be disqualified if he wore his helmet with the faces of dead Ukrainian athletes.
Herashskevuch stood his ground and was both disqualified and declared a hero.
Read more:
The clock is ticking for Cortina – Olympic sports could be relocated to the USA
The torchbearer “fell” over the microphone cable – 70 years later the Olympic Games are back in Cortina
The football city, the Skärllbacken and a two-thousand-year-old amphitheater – the Winter Olympics take place here in Italy
