Snow in short supply as Italy gears up to host Winter Olympics

The town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of Italy’s most famous ski resorts, is gearing up to co-host the 2026 Winter Olympics, marking a return of the Games to one of its traditional European venues for the first time in two decades.As skiers enjoy the nearby Dolomites slopes and tourists stroll in the center of the Alpine town, builders are working flat out to have the sliding center ready for a March deadline when athletes are scheduled to test it for the first time.Finishing the sliding center, which will stage the Olympic bob, skeleton, and luge competitions, is one of the headaches facing local organizers who must also adapt to climate change, which has meant natural snow is in short supply.Cortina and Italy’s biggest northern city of Milan, more than 250 miles away, are the main hosts of the Feb.6-22 Games, with five other venues also being used before a closing ceremony in Verona.Cortina Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi plays down any risk of losing the sliding events to Lake Placid in the US, a global hub for those sports, which has been surprisingly designated as a long-distance backup solution should things go wrong in Cortina.“There are backups for everything, but… as of today, a Plan B for the bob races does not exist anymore because it has been made clear the sliding center is being built here,” said Lorenzi.“I am not worried… Technicians are telling us the center is going to be ready.”The International Olympic Committee echoed Lorenzi’s remarks last week, reiterating that the track would be finished on time.The IOC earlier suggested using existing venues in neighboring Austria or Switzerland, but Italy’s northeastern Veneto region and the national government ultimately opted for a full rebuilding of Cortina’s Eugenio Monti track.Named after an Italian bobsleigh racer who won two silver medals at the Winter Olympics held in Cortina in 1956, the revamped site has an estimated cost of $123 million.

That is part of a 3.4-billion-euro budget for...