The National Times - Winter Olympics - 100 days to go to 'unforgettable Games'

In just over three months the winter sports showpiece will take place in Italy for the third time, and the first time in western Europe since the Turin Games in 2006.

The 20-year hiatus from the spiritual home of many of the major winter sports has been marked by events in Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing, some of which were criticised for their environmental impact and huge cost.

"After these big events there have always been problems but this edition is of and for the areas they're being held in," said Italy's deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, at a 100-days-to-go event in Milan on Wednesday.

The estimated final bill for the Milan-Cortina Games is 5.2 billion euros (6.05 billion dollars), a number which is dwarfed by the sums spent for the previous three Winter Olympics.

As a result the 2026 Games, which run over February 6-22, span a vast area from Milan to the Dolomite mountains in Italy's north-east.

Ice sports will be held in Milan while Bormio and Cortina host alpine skiing.

Across the Dolomites the biathlon will be in Anterselva and Nordic skiing in Val di Fiemme, with Livigno in the Italian Alps hosting snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

That geographic spread means that organisers have focused on using existing infrastructure, with only two of the 13 venues being new.

The two Olympic villages in Milan and ski resort Cortina d'Ampezzo were both completed earlier this month while the controversial bobsleigh track in Cortina, built after a long wrangle by the Italian government against the advice of the IOC, will soon host its first international competition.

However the multi-purpose Santa Giulia arena in Milan, where the ice hockey tournaments will be held, is still under construction by a private operator and won't be tested until less than a month before the opening ceremony.

Santa Giulia is still the major issue for organisers as it missed a key test date in December, when the under-20 world championships where scheduled to be held there.

That event was moved to the Games' secondary ice hockey arena in Rho, in the western suburbs of Milan, with Santa Giulia now not to be tested until January 9-11 when Italian league matches are set to be held at the 16,000-capacity arena.

- 'Unforgettable Games' -

"Let's be honest, we're going to need those 100 days and we're going to have to use them," Giovanni Malago, president of the Milan-Cortina organising committee, told reporters on Wednesday.

"But I don't think that there's been anything different to many other events, and not just those involving sport, where right up until a few days, even hours before the start, there are people working to ensure everything lives up to expectations."

SimiCo, the company responsible for delivering the Olympic venues and which is in charge of the construction and renovation of 51 transportation and 47 sports facilities, shares Malago's optimism.

"Everything will be ready for unforgettable Games," insisted CEO Fabio Saldini.

On Wednesday organisers also unveiled the podiums on which the head of Italy's Olympic committee (CONI) Luciano Buonfiglio hopes his country's athletes better their medal tally from three years ago.

"After the 17 medals won in Beijing in 2022 we have to get 19 medals, at least 19," Buonfiglio at another event in Milan on Wednesday.

Buonfiglio's goal is one less than Italy's record medal haul of 20 at a Winter Olympics, set at the Lillehammer Games in 1994 when the country claimed seven golds and finished fourth in the medals table.

Three years ago Italy won just two golds, in the curling mixed doubles and through Fontana in the short track 500 metres.

A.M.Murray--TNT