Lake Placid chosen as Olympic venue super sub if gamble on Cortina backfires
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A general view of Bormio and the Olympic slope for the men's alpine events of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
PHOTO: AFP
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ROME – Italian 2026 Winter Olympic organisers have named American ski resort Lake Placid as their “Plan B”, should work on the new bobsleigh slope at Cortina d’Ampezzo not be ready in time.
The next Games are spread over two venues, with Milan hosting the ski events and Cortina the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions.
After concerns, Cortina is officially back on track to confound doubters and win its race to be completed for the upcoming Olympics only 13 months away.
The more upbeat vibe around Cortina will come as a relief to all Italian fans of winter sliding sports, and also the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni.
After initially picking Cortina d’Ampezzo following the awarding of the 2026 Winter Games to Italy, work began on the slope only in February 2024, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning that no such venue had ever been built “in such a short time”.
Cortina’s role as a 2026 venue was in major doubt when financial backing failed to appear after it was chosen to be one of the two venues for the next Games.
That forced organisers back in October 2023 to concede defeat and – in a first in the history of the Winter Games – start looking at hosting the bobsleigh and the other two sports in a different country.
That eventuality now looks to have been averted despite the precautionary naming of two-time former Winter Olympic venue Lake Placid as Cortina’s emergency backup plan.
“Lake Placid is our official Plan B,” the 2026 organisers confirmed.
“But only in the event that we can’t go to Cortina, a situation that has been ruled out by the reassuring information that continues to come in on the progress of the work.”
Despite its vastly shorter timeframe to be completed for the Games, work is bang on schedule, with 67 per cent completed, assured Simico, the company overseeing the Olympics’ construction projects, in December.
They added they were on target to get the slope provisionally cleared for use in March.
Lake Placid, 6,000km from Cortina in New York state, has already held the Winter Games in 1932 and 1980.
Organisers of the 2026 edition of the winter sporting feast were only obliged to name an alternative venue as the practice stipulated in IOC rules.
Lake Placid was chosen as a super-sub ahead of two closer-to-home options – Swiss ski resort St Moritz and Innsbruck in Austria.
In other news, Mikaela Shiffrin said that she hopes to “work into some easy turns on snow in the next week or so” as she continues her recovery after suffering a heavy fall in November.
The 29-year-old American skier has been sidelined since suffering a punctured abdomen as she chased her 100th World Cup victory in the giant slalom at Killington, Vermont, on Nov 30.
Last week, she shared some good news with fans regarding her eventual return to action.
“Long hours of gym/rehab time but it’s coming along and I’m so happy with that,” she wrote on social media, accompanied by a video of her working out.
“There’s a little way to go before I’m ready to truly ski with intensity – from a pain and a fitness perspective – but I am psyched with where we’re at now, kicking off 2025.” AFP
