The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which officially open on February 6 at Milan’s San Siro stadium, will be the Games of great distances, as the events are spread over an area of 22,000 square kilometers, the largest in Olympic history.
The desire to take advantage of existing slopes and facilities to minimize environmental damage and ensure increasingly scarce snow has expanded the competition map across much of the Italian Alps.
Games marked by long distances
The two sites that give the project its name are 420 km apart.
The opening of the Olympic Winter Games will be held in Milan and the closing ceremony in Verona.
And there are six Olympic villages: Milan, Cortina, Anterselva, Bormio, Predazzo and Livigno.
The example of Bormio demonstrates what it will mean to move between venues.
The town is about a three-hour drive from Milan, passing along the shores of Lake Como before heading towards Tirano.
The train also arrives there from the Lombard capital, but then the road is the only way to get to Bormio.
The beauty of the panoramic views (Tirano is one of the terminals of the Bernina Express train, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site) does not prevent the journey, along narrow and twisting roads, from taking forever.
From Bormio, it takes another hour, and a lot of driving skill, to get to another of the main mountain venues of the Winter Olympics, Livigno, which hosts freestyle skiing and snowboarding.
Livigno, a site as beautiful as it is isolated
The road, the only snow-free route for dozens of kilometers around, passes through Trepalle, the highest inhabited village in Europe (2,250 m.).
Nicknamed ‘little Tibet’, Livigno is so isolated that it enjoys free zone status, exempt from VAT.
The return trip to Milan takes four hours.
These distances will force fans to choose very carefully which sport they want to watch at these Olympic Winter Games.
Because jumping from one to the other in the same day will be almost impossible.
They start early and make history
Although the Winter Olympic Games open on Friday, February 6, there will be competition as early as Wednesday, February 4:
The mixed doubles curling matches will begin at the Olympic Stadium in Cortina, which was used for the 1956 Games.
The first medals will be awarded on the 7th, including the men’s downhill medal in Bormio.
These are the most equal Winter Olympic Games in history, with 47% female participation.
In another sign of the women’s technical progress, the mass start cross-country skiing event will be contested for the first time over 50 km, like the men’s, and not over 30.
The opening ceremony will be in Milan, and the closing ceremony in Verona
QuéOnnda.com
This is how sports are distributed by venue
The geographical distribution of sports during the Olympic Winter Games is as follows:
Milan hosts figure skating, speed skating, short track and ice hockey.
With stars of the National Hockey League who will represent their countries.
Cortina d’Ampezzo is home to women’s alpine skiing, curling, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge events.
Val di Fiemme is home to cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic skiing.
Anterselva, biathlon. Bormio, men’s alpine skiing and ski mountaineering. And Livigno, artistic skiing and snowboarding.
With information from EFE
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