Olympics-Italy’s new sliding centre for 2026 Games passes initial tests

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(Reuters) – The new ‘Eugenio Monti’ sliding centre for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics has successfully completed its initial tests for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions.

Track experts from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation and International Luge Federation as well as coaches, assessed its compliance with international racing standards.

In the initial, or ‘pre-homologation’, test runs, 60 athletes from 12 nations tested the 1,730-metre track – a redesign of the 1920s original with 16 curves.

“It’s just fantastic to see the track in such good shape,” IBSF President Ivo Ferriani said in a statement on Friday.

“We all know that the time frame for the reconstruction was very tight and ambitious.

“The feedback we have received from our technical experts, the coaches and athletes on site this week has been very positive,” he added.

Italian skeleton athlete Mattia Gaspari, a Cortina native, was the first to test the track after its inauguration on Tuesday. Athletes from Team USA, including five-times world champion and Olympic medallist Kaillie Humphries, also tried it.

The completion of the roof and ancillary installations is scheduled for November, before final tests before it is handed over to the organisers of the February 6-22 Games.

Lake Placid in the U.S. has been chosen as Plan B for next year in case something happens to the schedule of the sliding centre project, although the International Olympic Committee said in January that it will be finished on time.

(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; Editing by Ken Ferris)