Dispersed Winter Olympics sites ‘have added complexity’: IOC president Kirsty Coventry
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IOC president Kirsty Coventry said one effect of the geographical spread was that Olympic host broadcasting teams had been scattered and could not help in other venues that were too far away.
PHOTO: AFP
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LAUSANNE – IOC president Kirsty Coventry said the dispersed sites of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics had “added additional complexities” to the organisation of the Games that open on Feb 6.
Coventry, the former Zimbabwean swimmer who will be overseeing her first Games since taking over from Thomas Bach as head of the International Olympic Committee, also said there was a balance to strike in future between “making decisions for sustainable reasons” and the “experience... for athletes”.
Milano-Cortina organisers have used largely existing sites – many of which have been used to host World Cup and world championship events – for these Games, but as a result, they stretch over 22,000 sq km from the Dolomites to the Po Valley.
“I do believe that we took the right decision in having a more dispersed Games, but it has, and I think we can all say very openly and honestly... added additional complexities,” Coventry said.
“I think initially we all thought, ‘Oh well, we’ll just have it be a little bit more dispersed because that’s more sustainable’. Yes, that is very true, but it has added additional complexities in the delivery of the Games.”
She said one effect of the geographical spread of the Games sites was that Olympic host broadcasting teams had been scattered and could not help in other venues that were too far away.
“I think we are already seeing that what we’re going to be able to learn from Milano-Cortina is at the end of the Games, we will be able to take these things and look at it and almost somehow maybe come up with a cost,” she added.
Meanwhile, Italy hopes to receive a “healthy dose of doping” for its economy from other investments linked to these Games, arguing that major events can accelerate long-delayed infrastructure projects.
Speaking at an event for the Games in Rome on Jan 21, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said resources earmarked for Olympic works could help lift the national economy.
“My little hope is that we get a helping hand, a bit of ‘healthy doping’ for the country’s growth,” he said, referring to the multiplier effect that Olympic investments – especially in transport links – can have on the economy.
But France, which hosted the 2024 Summer Games, saw only a marginal boost to its gross domestic product. The country’s Court of Auditors estimated the Olympics lifted economic growth by just 0.07 of a percentage point that year. AFP, REUTERS
