Pressure builds on Milano Cortina organisers

Funding gaps and warm temperatures challenge preparations for the tournament

ITALY:

Pressure is mounting on Italian authorities to accelerate preparations for the Milano Cortina Olympics amid funding gaps and unusually warm temperatures, even as the head of world skiing openly advocates a fundamental overhaul of how future Winter Games are hosted.
With the Games due to start in February, International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) president Johan Eliasch said Italy’s challenges were symptomatic of deeper structural issues facing winter sport, as rising costs, climate pressure and under-used infrastructure fuel calls for a rotating model of permanent Olympic hosts.
Growing concern over climate pressure, escalating costs and the waste of Olympic infrastructure after the Games is strengthening support within international sport for a rotation system, under which a small pool of established venues would host the Winter Olympics on a recurring basis.
Proponents argue that such a model would allow long-term planning, reduce spending and ensure consistent conditions for athletes and spectators, rather than forcing hosts to build or upgrade facilities that are rarely used once the Games end.
Eliasch said several Olympic venues were facing technical difficulties not because of shortcomings by local organisers, but because of funding issues at government level.
Games organisers have said the venues will be ready on time.
“We see here that there are some venues that have technical difficulties. It’s not the organizing committees. It’s just simply a lack of funding from the Italian government,” he told Reuters in an interview.
“It’s really important that every effort is now made to make sure that everything is ready on time.”
Eliasch warned that readiness alone was not enough.
“We know that we will get everything somehow ready on time,” he said. “But the question is, of course, what? And that what needs to meet a certain quality threshold and also experience threshold for the spectators, the fans, the athletes, first and foremost, to make this a success.”
He warned that funding constraints could push preparations beyond critical tipping points.
SNOWMAKING CONCERNS
“We shouldn’t be penny wise and pound foolish,” Eliasch said. “And there are certain tipping points here in the process beyond which there is no return.
“So from a quality perspective, for what we’re trying to do here, it’s really important that funding doesn’t become an impediment to deliver the best of the best for those two and a half weeks in February,” he added.