📰 Headline

Sabotage and Sidelining: Cortina’s Olympic Sliding Centre Plunges 2026 Winter Games into Crisis

🧭 Summary

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are facing a major international crisis after Italian authorities reported an incident of “sabotage” at the highly controversial Cortina Sliding Centre construction site, which is already racing against the clock. The facility, meant to host the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton events, has been plagued by soaring costs (now estimated at €118 million) and delays. This is compounded by new political tension, as the public agency managing the works, Simico, is rejecting transparency demands from civic monitoring groups. The construction chaos and political infighting could force the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the sliding events to a non-Italian venue like Lake Placid, USA, despite Italy’s national pride in hosting the events.

📰 Full Article

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — November 13, 2025

With little over a year until the Opening Ceremony, the ambitious, decentralized 2026 Winter Olympics—set across Northern Italy’s cities and Alps—is struggling to contain the financial and logistical fallout from its most contentious project: the rebuilding of the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre in Cortina.

The project has been controversial since organizers reversed a 2023 decision to hold the events abroad, opting instead to reconstruct the decades-old track to boost national prestige. The decision was met with criticism from the IOC, which urged cost-saving by using existing facilities in neighboring countries like Austria or Switzerland.

The situation escalated dramatically this week:

• Sabotage Claim: The government agency Simico reported that a refrigeration pipe was removed from the construction site, blocking a road and creating “considerable disruptions” just ahead of a scheduled visit by the IOC. Italy’s Infrastructure Minister, Matteo Salvini, labeled the incident “disturbing and serious.” While the motive is unclear, critics have long called the rebuilt track a potential “white elephant” due to high construction and management costs after the Games conclude.
• Transparency Fight: Concurrently, the construction process has been marred by allegations of poor transparency. Simico and government representatives have publicly clashed with a network of civic monitoring groups that demand access to details on how the €3.4 billion infrastructure budget is being spent, leading to a breakdown in cooperation and fueling corruption concerns.

Organizers are now under immense pressure to have the track ready for a crucial certification deadline in March 2026. Failure to meet this deadline would force the events—and the 12 gold medals they carry—to be relocated, dealing a significant blow to the Italian hosts and their promise of a smooth, legacy-focused Games.

✅ What to Watch

• IOC’s Ultimatum: How will the IOC respond to the sabotage claim and the latest delays? Will they formalize the contingency plan to use Lake Placid (USA) or another existing non-Italian venue?
• Political Accountability: Will the Italian government intervene further to streamline the construction process, potentially granting the managing agency, Simico, broader powers, or will the growing public outcry over transparency force a government inquiry?
• Venue Readiness: Beyond the sliding track, watch for updates on the new Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, which also faced legal challenges and is currently scheduled for completion just weeks before the Games begin.

🔑 Key Bullet Points

• Event Status: The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics face critical deadlines due to infrastructure delays.
• Controversy: The reconstruction of the Cortina Sliding Centre is vastly over budget (€118M) and faced an incident of “sabotage.”
• Transparency Issue: The public construction agency is being criticized for rejecting transparency and civic monitoring, fueling corruption allegations.
• Relocation Risk: Failure to complete the track by the March 2026 certification deadline will force the bobsleigh/luge events to be moved abroad.

Source: https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/OLYMPICS-2026-a33de113-e9d0-4e82-816d-0a1dee931c25/