Why some events at the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics could be held in the United States, more than 6,000 kilometers from Italy ?

Work is on schedule according to the organizers of the 2026 Winter Olympics. MAXPPP – Pierre Teyssot

The American track in Lake Placid will be the alternative solution for the organizers of the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan Cortina if the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events cannot take place on the Cortina track, the construction of which is progressing according to schedule, they indicated on Friday, January 3.

“Lake Placid is our official Plan B, but only in the event that we cannot go to Cortina, a scenario ruled out by the reassuring information that continues to arrive” on the progress of the work, explained the organizing committee Milano Cortina 2026, confirming information from the American press.

Launched last February, the construction of the Cortina track is progressing according to schedule, indicated in mid-December Simico, the Olympic delivery company that supervises all Olympic construction sites. She specified a few days later that 67% of the work had been completed while the track must be pre-approved by the end of March 2025.

As required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organizers of the 2026 Olympic Games worked on a plan B, an existing track, and opted, without justifying their choice, for the American solution in competition with Saint-Moritz (Switzerland) and Innsbruck (Austria).

6,000 kilometers away

The Lake Placid track, in New York State, is located more than 6,000 kilometers from Cortina d'Ampezzo. It has already hosted the Olympic Games twice (1932, 1980) and the Bobsleigh and Luge World Championships on multiple occasions.

The “sliding centre” issue has complicated the life of the organisers of the 2026 Olympic Games (5-22 February 2026) since the Olympic Games were awarded to them. They had initially planned to build a new track in Cortina, before changing their minds after their call for tenders went unanswered.

In October 2023, they decided to move the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events out of the country to an existing track, something never seen before in the history of the Winter Olympics. But eager to avoid what it considered a snub as it put “Made in Italy” at the centre of its action, the ultra-conservative government of Giorgia Meloni had immediately relaunched the idea of ​​building a track.

The IOC had then expressed its concern, indicating that no track of this kind had ever been built “in such a short time”.