It is becoming increasingly clear that the 2026 Olympic competitions in luge, bobsleigh and skeleton can be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo as planned. Not only is the controversial Italo ice channel almost half complete, but construction work is also set to continue in winter at enormous expense. It is expected to cost up to 81.6 million euros.

"The plan is for the track to be approved by the associations at the end of March. If necessary, this can also be done in April," says Austria's luge president Markus Prock, hoping that the tight schedule will work out. Homologation of the new ice channel in the fall of 2025 would be a risk. "Because then you won't have time to make any corrections," explains Prock.

Reconstruction was necessary in 2006
As a reminder: the track in Cesena, Italy, was rebuilt after serious crashes during races in the pre-Olympic winter. However, the measures in the section with bends 16, 17 and 18 did not help much. The 2006 Olympic track continued to crash regularly, and the facility was shut down in 2011.

World champion Schulte as test pilot
World champion Lisa Schulte has already been selected as a test pilot for the track approval. Perhaps a small advantage for the 23-year-old from Mieders. There are only a few runs there before the Olympics.

Because time is pressing, for the first time in history there will be no luge World Cup in the run-up to the Games. According to the Luge World Federation FIL, only one test competition is planned. "But all the federations will cry out loudly if we don't get enough training runs from the Italians," says Prock.

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