Just a year later, the San Siro Football Stadium will celebrate the winter sports celebration, while AC Milan and Inter’s home field will be the opening of the Milan-Cortina Olympics on 6.2.2026.
The world’s athletic youth meet for a couple of weeks to compete in the name of the Olympic idea around northern Italy in 16 different winter sports. The Winter Paralympics celebrating their 50th anniversary will compete in the same landscape in March.
One year before the opening, not everyone is ready yet. The organizers have repeatedly had to calm the concerns of the international Olympic Committee’s concerns about the completion of the venues.
Pre -races have had to be canceled in more than one sport. Among other things, the construction of the sled center, the ski jumping towers and the main stage of ice sports are still in phase.
The Finnish Olympic Committee Snow Species Sports Sports Officer Toni Roponen is not worried on behalf of the organizer.
– When it comes to the point of view of the International Olympic Committee and the budget that is reserved for this construction for Italy, then the race venues will be completed on time, Roponen believes.
– But of course it is unfortunate that the final, final schedule is not yet known.
The ice sports center Santa Giulian is promised to be completed in November, a few months before the start of the Olympics.
The most unfortunate Roponen considers Livigno’s scheduling problems for snowboarding and freesk home.
– Livignon Park did not graduate one year before the Olympics. It would have been important to be tested in those circumstances.
Familiar winter sports enrollment
Most of the locations in Italy were already ready in Italy. Cortina d’Amppezzo, Anterselva, Val di Fiemie and Bormio are traditional racing sites whose names are identified by many followers of winter sports.
Indeed, in Milano-Cortina, the Olympics are divided into as many as six different racing villages, which are up to hundreds of kilometers between the distances.
“Certainly a little bit of a particular Olympic atmosphere is lost, but the competitions are in excellent conditions,” says Roponen.
Due to the distances, the Finnish Olympic Committee will have to build larger teams to safeguard maintenance and athletes. On the other hand, places of performance and their conditions are much more familiar to Finns than in Beijing and PyeongChang, for example.
A large team in expectations
According to Roponen, the situation of the Finnish team is better than when they leave for Beijing, even though the biggest expectations of success are in the familiar direction.
– Cross -country skiing and hockey are still our stone legs when thinking about absolute peak success, says Roponen.
Finland received six medals from Beijing, four of which came from cross -country skiing. In hockey, Finland is a dominant Olympic champion in men and a bronze medalist in women.
Finland has a team seat for both men’s and women’s hockey tournament. NHL players bring their extra spice to the Milan Olympic hockey, returning to the five-ring race after a long break.
The first Finnish athletes will be selected for the Milano-Cortina Olympics in the autumn. Roponen believes in a big team, but does not guess the final number. 95 athletes left for Beijing, 47 of whom participated in individual sports.
– There have been great successes in the snow and figure skating side. In many sports, it now looks great, Roponen incense.
The number of Finnish athletes may increase in many sports from the Beijing Olympics. There are currently three athletes more than the Chinese Games for cross -country skiing.
– We had 13 athletes there, and now we are getting 16 athletes just for cross -country skiing. The hill bill has started very well, and a big team is getting there. It seems that we have up to 10 athletes in biathlon, which has changed completely in the year, Roponen lists.
In the above species, the Snow Specifice Officer sees the greatest medal potential and adds to the combined (among other things Ilkka Herola) as well as freesk (Anni Kärävä).
– In figure skating, we have clearly risen (Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis) to fight for top investments. And then we have individual athletes in different sports, Roponen outlines.
In all sports, Finland is not getting any giant team in Italy. Olympic screens are given from alpine skiing to snowboarding.
– This is the qualifying year in most species. It is very important that we get as many athletes as possible for the Olympics.