Luca Zaia and the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics: less than a year after the games, determination and projects completed for world excellence
Life is a step by step. In the subtitle of Luca Zaia’s book “Fa soon go slow” there is the philosophy of life of the President of the Veneto Region who now has only in mind to bring the projects already started to terms. With the pride of claiming that the winter Olympics in the Dolomites wanted him when no one thought about it and now he is preparing for the final sprint. There is less than a year, Cortina is still an open construction site, but in the meantime the first large goal has been reached, what seemed impossible: the Bob Eugenio Monti track is ready, will host the Bob, Sledtino and Skeleton races. A work of over 118 million euros carried out in less than a year, for Zaia “the demonstration that the willpower, the determination, leads to the result”.
Zaia, the Bob track will be the symbol of Milan-Cortina.
“It will be our Guggenheim Museum, like that of Bilbao. A monument to madness, a challenge to those who said that it would be impossible to make. We restored a devastated mountain side and instead of the trees that have been demolished there will be many more: we will plant ten thousand. We restored a landfill”.
The party of the opposites was very numerous….
“I started from an idea, from a dossier, who had a lot of criticism, especially from a lot of skeptics who said that at the best of the hypotheses it would be a fiasco, in the worst I was making fun of the citizens. I have to say thanks to the ex -mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi that said no to the candidacy of Rome for the Olympics. When we proposed our dossier at the IOC we found the way”.
Someone fears that after the games the Bob track remains unused, in short, that it was a superfluous expenditure.
“Meanwhile, this work will be the last Bob track in the built world. So it will still be a piece of history and then we intend to use it all year round, it will become a tourist attraction that can also be used in summer with taxi-boob descents, mountain bike and bmx routes and unique experiences for the public. And then the plants will be used for the 2028 youthful Olympics and were assigned to the Dolomites and Valtellina “
How did the idea of these games come about?
“In 2018 we launched the idea of an Olympiad shared between our mountains, those of Trentino and South Tyrol. We wanted an Olympiad that enhanced existing plants. The most beautiful mountains in the world will be seen by everyone. Then the axis with Milan was born and it was a winning idea”.
What will Cortina be after the Olympics?
“Meanwhile, those who go to Cortina will be able to use two variants that we are building: that of Cortina precisely and that of Longarone. Then there will be enormous growth of the real estate value because alongside the works we are doing they started many private renovations. Cortina will be even more beautiful and it is not true that it will be only for rich, the hotel offer will be graded. Trafficking are a necessary discomfort to grow and improve you.
What economic impact will there be?
“For the economic and tourist system it is an incredible opportunity. A study by Banca Ifis has calculated that Milan-Cortina 2026 will generate a total economic value of 5.3 billion euros. Of these 1.1 during the games and the rest in the future for the induced and tourist expenditure. We provide two million visitors only for the Veneto. We will have incredible visibility worldwide: the estimated audience is 3 billion thanks to 3 billion. 160 thousand hours of television production “
Cortina imposed himself in the world with the 1956 Winter Olympics.
“It was the first Olympics broadcast on TV, 32 nations and 891 athletes. Now we will host 90 countries and over 3,500 athletes. Sixty thousand volunteers will be involved and also from this point of view there was an exceptional adhesion. But it was not the only case. When things are done well they bring enormous advantages, think about how Barcelona was reborn after the 1992 Olympics”
It will be the first Olympics with a woman president of the IOC.
“I am very happy with the election of Kirsty Coventry. Its election is one more reason to be sure that the games that we will organize in a year will be a unique event and will enter the history of sport by right”
It still remains a little work to do.
“We must complete the Socrepes system on which 500 people are working and then we are carrying out another idea, the great carousel, which will lead Cortina to have a very large ski area with the connections with Arabba and Civetta. It will be twice the Sella Ronda Sella”
Zaia, his assignment to the Presidency of the Veneto Region is about to expire. What will you do later?
“I don’t think about it. Life is a step by step”
