Spread-out Winter Olympics in Italy comes with ‘complexities,’ IOC president says

When athletes from around the world arrive in Italy for the Winter Olympics in the next week or so, they’ll be scattered throughout the country’s north.

Six Olympic villages make up Milano Cortina 2026, from the city of Milan all the way to the Antholz Valley.

Planning a large-scale event over such an expansive stretch of the country has come with challenges, including for International Olympic Committee (IOC) staff, who’ve been told to limit trips between clusters to minimize their environmental impact.

“I think initially we all thought, we’ll just have it be a little bit more dispersed because that’s more sustainable,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said on Wednesday, ahead of her trip to Italy next week. “Yes, that is very true. But it has added additional complexities in the delivery of the Games.”

While Coventry said that she believes it was the right decision to spread out the Games’ footprint in Italy by using mostly pre-existing venues, it’s a model the IOC plans to review after the Olympics.

“We’ve got to find the balance between sustainability and making decisions for sustainable reasons, and the balance of experience for fans, for [National Olympic Committees], for athletes,” she said.

That includes trying to measure the cost of spreading out the Games’ footprint, and looking at what it would cost if some disciplines were dropped from the Olympic programme.

An Olympic programme working group that Coventry created when she took office last year is already tasked with reviewing the disciplines that are part of the Olympic Games. It’s examining whether some disciplines should be removed or added, and will consider whether some sports should even cross over between the summer and winter calendars.

The Milano-Cortina Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6. Different parts of the ceremony will take place in four different locations in Italy, including the main venue in Milan’s San Siro Stadium.

One day before the opening ceremony, the first hockey game will be played in the Milano Santagiulia arena that’s been plagued with construction delays. It's one of two arenas that will host hockey games at the Olympics, including the semifinal and final rounds of women's and men's hockey.

Christophe Dubi, the IOC's Olympic Games executive director, visited the Milano Santagiulia arena on Tuesday. He said there’s still work needed on the concourse, as well as building temporary facilities like locker rooms. He plans to return for another visit on Friday.

“About half of the locker rooms are ready to host the teams,” Dubi said. “The other ones will be ready in a matter of days. When we start competition, it will be ready, no problem with this.”

He said it’s “all hands on deck” from an estimated 1,600 workers a day in the race to get the arena ready for the Games.

“Hats off to all those that could pull out such a venue in so little time,” Dubi said. “It was always a complex project. It started late.”