Since IOC’s new guidelines Agenda 2020 was introduced, Olympic arrangements will be more durable.
This means that the construction of new facilities should try to be avoided, not to burden the economy and the environment more than necessary and that arenas that are still being built should be used even after the Olympics.
But with less than a year left for the Winter Olympics in Italy, they are fully building a new facility for Bob, Rodel and Skeleton in Cortina. In the same place as the disadvantaged Olympic track from 1956 previously stood.
A construction plan that was not mentioned in the application when Italy was awarded the Olympics in front of Sweden in 2019.
“It’s not an option for us”
The reason is that the Italian government, with the right -wing nationalist parties Italy’s brothers and legally at the forefront, wants to keep the Olympics within Italy’s borders.
– People have protested and said that our Olympics are not sustainable, but we have planted thousands of trees. Sustainability is not just a word, that’s something we practice, says Legas party leader Matteo Salvini during an event in Milan.
Plan B is to move the toboggan sports to Lake Placid, USA.
– It’s not an option for us. Usually it is a country that organizes the Olympic Games and it is a value we want to preserve, says Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi to SVT Sport.
Third Olympic track that is being built
The construction has led to protests in Cortina among environmentally engaged who believe that the facility, when the Olympic party is over, will lapse.
In Italy, two Olympics for Kälksporter have already been built before previous Olympic Games, the latest for the Turin Olympics in 2006. Today none of them are in use.
But you fight against the clock. The plant must be completed in March, according to the IOC’s deadline, to be tested properly for the Olympics.
– We will be ready in time, promises to Sports Minister Abodi.
IOC cannot influence the decision
When SVT Sport visits Cortina, we meet stressed construction workers who testify to long passes seven days a week to live up to that promise.
And even though the construction of the new Olympic arena goes against the IOC’s will, you can do nothing about it now, according to Chairman Thomas Bach.
– We have been very clear about what we think, but Italy is an independent state, we have to respect that, he tells SVT Sport.
See the pictures from the half -finished building in the player above.