ROME — Italian skeleton athlete Mattia Gaspari recently became the first to trial the debated sliding track for the upcoming Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Conducted in a tunneled environment shielded by a provisional roof made of wooden beams and white plastic, this marks an important milestone as the sliding center in Cortina d’Ampezzo is still undergoing construction with only the track structure being fully complete.
Achieving this progress within just over a year since the start of the construction is considered a noteworthy triumph for the Italian administration. The government pursued the renovation of the historic track, despite suggestions from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider alternative venues in neighboring Austria or Switzerland for events like bobsled, luge, and skeleton.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Matteo Salvini, expressed his excitement regarding this development, stating, “It’s really been quite an adventure.” Acknowledging the construction company for their faith in the project and the media who remained skeptical of its completion, he added, “Well, here we are.”
Following Gaspari’s initial run, Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller made his descent on the luge, succeeded by Simone Bertazzo and Eric Fantazzini in a two-man bobsled test. Simico, the governmental body overseeing the 118 million euro ($128 million) scheme, reported successful initial runs. However, it’s up to the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, International Luge Federation, and the IOC to grant preliminary certification, a procedure technically termed as homologation.
Receiving a preliminary nod would bypass the backup “Plan B,” a demand from the IOC that could entail relocating the sliding sports to Lake Placid, New York, should the Italian track fail to be ready in due time. Lake Placid authorities remained hopeful that if they were to host the events, a decision would be reached by March’s end. The Cortina track construction commenced in February of the previous year. The pre-homologation setup involves initiating athlete runs from the junior starting point, below usual competitive starting platforms for World Cup and Olympic races. Athletes are scheduled to gradually progress up the track over the ensuing days.
Upcoming testing events for bobsled, skeleton, and luge will span throughout the fall at the Cortina track, pivotal for sliders acclimatizing to the course and ensuring safety during Olympic contests, especially since the tragic passing of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a practice session at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Luge athletes will have an international training stint on the new track from October 27 to November 2, followed by a test event in late November. Bobsled and skeleton athletes will have their training phase from November 7-16, leading into season-opening World Cup races scheduled from November 17-23.
The track, stretching 1.749 kilometers (1.09 miles), hosts 16 curves, promising peak speed reaches of 145 kilometers per hour (90 miles per hour), with projected run times of 55-60 seconds. About 60 athletes from 12 nations, including half Italian sliders, have been involved in the current testing phase. Coaches from over 23 sliding nations have been invited to this week’s events.