The demonstrators are also causing a stir in Milan. © APA/afp / PIERO CRUCIATTI

Ice channel in Cortina: Now come the environmentalists

Environmentalists are planning a series of protests against the construction of a bobsleigh, skeleton and luge track for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

20. February 2024

From: dpa

In Cortina there is a protest against the planned deforestation of 500 centuries-old larches in a 20.000 square meter area, for which reforestation of only 4.276 square meters in other areas is planned to compensate.

Under the motto “Against the cement of the Olympic Games and the new bobsleigh track in Cortina”, the environmental associations of the province of Belluno, to which Cortina belongs, have announced a series of protest actions. More than 200 people gathered on Monday in front of the former “Eugenio Monti” Olympic track, which was closed in 2008 and on whose track the new structure is to be partially built. They chanted slogans against deforestation.

The protest took place on the occasion of the official handover of the construction site to the Pizzarotti company, which was commissioned by the government in Rome to carry out the work, which cost 81 million euros. These must be completed within one year. The environmental activists criticized the fact that the project was never publicly presented to the citizens of Cortina. Due to concerns about attacks on the construction site, security precautions in Cortina were tightened

80 million euros and within a year

The ice channel is expected to cost 81,6 million euros and be completed by March 2025. 90 workers will work on it seven days a week. Competitive testing is scheduled for the first two months of 2025, a year before the opening of the 2026 Winter Games.

SIMICO, the company responsible for infrastructure projects related to the Games, awarded Pizzarotti the contract for the construction work at the beginning of February. With this decision, the prospect of holding the competitions in Innsbruck-Igls is finally off the table.