From criticism to praise, in addition to the American newspaper, Der Spiegel and Le Monde also underline the beauty of our mountains and the efficiency of new Olympic facilities and villages
It is snowing in Cortina and also in Bormio and Predazzo and with the snow, which had already fallen before the inaugural ceremony, the landscape of the Dolomites takes on a fairy-tale appearance that the whole world envies. From the day of the inaugural ceremony (8 February) of Milano Cortina 2026 to today the whole world has discovered the beauty of our mountains and the Olympic atmosphere has infected everyone, especially in the Pearl of the Dolomites, even coloring the center of Milan where athletes and fans parade in their bright down jackets. After the fierce criticism that preceded the Winter Olympics, both from our media and from foreign ones, suddenly the wind has changed. From the beauty of the inaugural ceremony at San Siro onwards only praise for the locations and the organisation. The new Arena Santa Giulia in Milan has always been sold out and will remain a jewel available to the city in the coming years, the athletes and coaches appreciated the functionality of the Olympic Villages (which don’t have cardboard beds like in Paris 2024), both for logistics and for the excellent food. And the rest was done by the dazzling beauty of our mountains. Especially those of Cortina where from the Olympia delle Tofane, to the restored Ice Rink up to the much discussed new bobsleigh track everything went perfectly
The New York Times photo
In the front page of the New York Times last Saturday there is a giant photo of the new Eugenio Monti track with the sun setting over the Cortina mountains behind it while an American athlete is involved in the race. Before the start of the Olympics, the prestigious New York newspaper had criticized the difficulties in traveling between one Olympic city and another, but from the moment the competitions began the judgment was completely reversed. The same thing happened with the German Der Spiegel who praised Cortina and curling: “a sport that is the protagonist of the winter games, curling exudes Olympic spirit. Has it infected you too?” the prestigious German newspaper asks. And even our cousins from beyond the Alps who are never tender towards us have underlined the happy choice of having Bruno Colli, who participated in the 1956 Olympics, as a torchbearer. “He never took his eyes off the flame, on a route designed especially for him a few kilometers from Cortina” underlines Le Monde.
