Italian job: Controversial track slides into action

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — After many setbacks, controversies and only 13 months of construction, a feat hailed as "an Italian miracle", the sliding track for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games was inaugurated on Tuesday.

Italy's Mattia Gaspari may not be among the gold medalists in the Dolomites next year, but the 31-year-old skeleton specialist has already made history.

Gaspari was the first to race down the much-discussed Cortina track as part of its pre-homologation process to ensure its safety for competitors.

Over the course of the week, dozens of bobsleigh, luge and skeleton athletes will carry out a series of test runs on the 1.75-kilometer track and its 16 turns, where speeds can hit 140km/h.

Run times are estimated to be around 55-60 seconds.

When construction work began in February 2024, late for a project of this scale and complexity, many doubted that it could be completed in time for the Olympics, which take place from Feb 6 to 22.

Not Matteo Salvini, the second-in-command and minister of Infrastructure and Transport in Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government.

Salvini relaunched the project at the end of 2023, when organizers wanted to relocate the 12 bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events to neighboring Austria or Switzerland because of the lack of a functioning track in Italy.

"I want to thank the workers who came from all over the world to Cortina to create this miracle that represents Italy so well," the Italian deputy premier said.

"Where there's a will, there's a way. Italian engineers and architects are without equal in the world," said Salvini, comparing the sliding track to Filippo Brunelleschi's famed 15th-century dome over Florence Cathedral.

"History is full of Italians who dared. At the time, it was said of this dome that it would never last. Six centuries later, it's still there. This will also apply to those who say these Olympic Games are too expensive."