Two tracks, due to their proximity to Italy, could do the trick: they are historic sites for these disciplines, Saint-Moritz, in Switzerland, and Innsbruck-Igls, in Austria, respectively 300 and 200 km from Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The St. Moritz piste, the oldest in the world (1904), has the particularity of being naturally “iced up” every winter with 15,000 m3 of snow and 10,000 m3 of water.
The Bobsleigh World Cup stops there every winter and it has hosted the Olympic Games twice (1928, 1948), 18 editions of the Bobsleigh World Championships and the 2020 Youth Olympic Games.
The Igls track, an obligatory passage for the bob and luge World Cups each season, has hosted the Olympic Games twice (1964, 1976), the Youth Olympic Games (2012) and multiple editions of the World Championships bobsleigh (4) and luge (5).
The geography of the other tracks follows that of the world hierarchy of these disciplines (three in Germany, flagship nation of bobsleigh and luge, with Altenberg, Königssee and Winterberg, one in Latvia with Sigulda).
Towards a rotation for the Olympics?
And of course that of the Winter Olympics: two in the United States, Lake Placid and Park City, built respectively for the 1980 and 2002 Olympics; one in Norway, Lillehammer, Olympic Games-1994; one in Canada, Whistler, Olympic Games-2010 and one in Russia in Sochi, Olympic Games-2014.
But since the 1984 Olympics, no less than seven of the eleven tracks built especially for the event have disappeared from the international calendar or appear there very rarely. They were dismantled or mothballed due to their maintenance and operating costs (Calgary for the 1988 Olympics, Cesana for the 2006 Olympics) or they are geographically distant (Nagano, Japan, for the 1998 Olympics). , Pyeongchang, in South Korea, for the 2018 Olympics, Yangqing, in China, for the 2022 Olympics), while Sarajevo (1984 Olympics) did not survive the war in former Yugoslavia and La Plagne ( Olympic Games-1992) now has a more tourist vocation.
The IOC would not take a dim view of the reuse by Milan Cortina 2026 of an already existing track, since this is becoming its credo.
The Olympic body must deal with a reduction in the number of cities interested in hosting the Winter Olympics, frightened by the costs, in particular of building the bobsleigh track, and also of use after the event for confidential sports.
Faced also with the impact of global warming on the number of cities able to host the Winter Olympics, the IOC could ultimately go further: establish a rotation system between several “Olympic cities”, which would make it possible to reuse sports infrastructures. .
