2024-01-19 17:32:01
MILAN (AP) — An Italian construction company has submitted a bid of 81.6 million euros ($89 million) to rebuild the historic bobsled track in Cortina d’Ampezzo for the 2026 Winter Olympics due to a stalemate between local organizers and the IOC, who wants to use a headquarters that already exists in Austria or Switzerland.
The offer from the company Impresa Pizzarotti & C. of Parma – which does not include taxes – was the only one presented before the closing of the process on Thursday night.
If approved, construction will begin less than two years before the Milan-Cortina Games begin — and less than a year before the International Olympic Committee’s mandatory tests. No track has recently been built in such a short time and testing has become increasingly important since the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili in a Luge training session hours before the start of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The IOC insisted they must choose an existing runway outside Italy to avoid extra construction costs. Options include St. Moritz in Switzerland and Igls in Austria.
“Our position does not change,” IOC Olympic Games director Christophe Dubi said Thursday during a meeting in South Korea, saying they will make a decision by Jan. 31.
“From the beginning we believed that this headquarters was extremely complex in terms of cost, in terms of legacy, in terms of time,” Dubi acknowledged regarding the options in Italy. “We promoted the use of an existing runway.”
But the Italian government does not want to pay for events that will take place in other countries.
They might make a decision during the next local organizing committee board meeting on January 30.
The IOC is concerned regarding high expenses and possible projects that end up being white elephants and has asked venues to use venues in other countries.
But the organizers of the Paris Summer Games disobeyed the IOC and chose Tahiti to host the surfing events. The project is carried out amid environmental concern over the construction of a tower for judges and television cameras in a lagoon with crystal clear water and reefs.
The next Winter Olympic Games will be held in northern Italy between February 6 and 22, 2026.
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