Olympics-Sliding centre for Italy’s 2026 Games hit by sabotage, agency says

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MILAN (Reuters) – The construction site of a new sliding centre for the 2026 Milano-Cortina winter Olympics has been disrupted by “sabotage”, a government agency said on Friday.

Italy is rushing to complete the sliding venue for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions in the Alpine town of Cortina, which will co-host the Feb. 6-22 Games next year.

Simico, the agency in charge of building the infrastructure for the Games, said in a statement a refrigeration pipe was removed from the venue.

The pipe blocked a road, and “created considerable disruptions on the construction site, ahead of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) visit scheduled on March 4,” the statement added.

Italy’s infrastructure minister Matteo Salvini said on X the incident was “disturbing and serious”.

The full rebuilding of Cortina’s Eugenio Monti sliding track has an estimated cost of 118 million euros ($123.32 million) and is part of a 3.4-billion-euro budget for the infrastructure linked to the Games.

The project to rebuild the plant has been controversial since the beginning.

The IOC repeatedly voiced concerns over the planned new track, saying the use of an existing sliding centre outside Italy would keep costs down and cut preparation time.

However, organisers opted to build a new facility instead of using an existing one in a neighbouring country.

Critics have argued that the revamped sliding venue risks being a white elephant given the limited number of elite competitors in sliding events and the high venue management costs.

($1 = 0.9568 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Christian Radnedge)