60 athletes to test Cortina's controversial Olympic sliding track next week

Andrew Dampf · The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 3:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

The track's indispensable operation is done. The crystal is being prepared. And adjacent week, 60 athletes are slated to trial the arguable sliding centre for adjacent year's Milan-Cortina Olympics.

"The track's operation is done. We had it successful our calendars to decorativeness by March 16 and that's erstwhile it was finished," Fabio Saldini, the authorities commissioner successful complaint of rebuilding the century-old way successful Cortina d'Ampezzo, told The Associated Press connected Tuesday.

Construction workers celebrated Sunday's milestone by laying down a subdivision of an evergreen histrion crossed the track.

"The histrion subdivision represents a starting point, similar erstwhile [bobsled] teams get acceptable to propulsion disconnected earlier launching themselves down the track," said Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto portion that includes Cortina. "I anticipation that the enthusiasm builds infinitesimal by infinitesimal successful a crescendo worthy of an lawsuit of this magnitude."

Twenty workers preparing crystal connected the way time and nighttime are slated to decorativeness by Sunday.

Then starting connected Monday, bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes volition execute trial runs successful bid to unafraid preliminary certification, homologation is the method word, for the track. Also coming are 26 coaches, positive officials from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, International Luge Federation, and the International Olympic Committee.

Even preliminary support would spell a agelong mode toward avoiding a backup Plan B enactment the IOC had demanded and which would necessitate moving the 3 sliding sports each the mode to Lake Placid, N.Y., if the way successful Italy wasn't finished successful time.

"As of today, 50 per cent of the crystal is ready," Saldini said. "We had immoderate occupation past week owed to precocious temperatures, rainfall and snow. But past we covered the way with nets and yesterday we really enactment down excessively overmuch ice."

Security has been accrued astir the way since a refrigeration conduit was removed and placed crossed a roadworthy successful a reported enactment of sabotage past month, according to the authorities agency, Simico.

Besides the sliding events, Cortina volition besides big women's alpine skiing and curling during the Winter Games.

Pre-fabricated mobile homes that volition big up to 1,400 athletes successful an athletes' colony successful Cortina are being enactment successful spot this month. The mobile homes volition besides beryllium utilized for athletes during the Paralympics.