The Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, in northern Italy, begin this Wednesday (4) with unfinished work and criticism from environmental groups. With more than one hundred events until February 22, the competition will take place in seven cities and will bring together around 2,900 athletes from more than 90 countries.
With curling competitions, this Wednesday’s events will be held two days before the opening ceremony, on Friday (6), at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, starting at 4pm (Brasília time). Gymnast Rebeca Andrade will be one of eight personalities to carry the Olympic flag, at the invitation of the organizers. The Minister of Sports, André Fufuca, will represent the Brazilian government.
With the largest team in its history, Brazil will have 14 athletes competing in five disciplines – alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, bobsled, skeleton and snowboard. Since 1992, the best Brazilian placing was in 2006, with Isabel Clark’s ninth place in snowboarding.
This time, there is a real chance of a medal, with Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, 25, born in Norway to a Brazilian mother, who will compete from the 14th in alpine skiing, in the slalom and giant slalom events. He, who chose to represent Brazil in 2024, after having competed for Norway, has already won 20 medals in World Cups. The Nordic country finished the 2022 Games in Beijing in first place, with 37 podiums.
The fourth Olympic edition hosted by Italy – the third winter edition, after Cortina-1956 and Turin-2006 – will be the first winter edition to take place under the guidelines of the 2020 Olympic Agenda, established by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). One of the intentions is to make the Games more sustainable, using, for example, existing or temporary structures.
Even so, the Santa Giulia arena was built in Milan, which will host ice hockey matches. In recent days, architect David Chipperfield’s project has become a topic less because of its “Colosseum of the future” look and more because of the rush to complete the work. At the weekend, the gym was not completed, with unfinished facilities for boxes, food and press, as well as areas inside and outside filled with construction material and dirt.
In Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Apollonio–Socrepes cable car, designed to transport the public to the women’s alpine skiing events, is at risk of not being completed in time.
According to Simico, a company that brings together the Italian government and four local administrations in carrying out the works, there are 98 interventions linked to the Games, 47 of which in sports facilities and 51 in transport infrastructure. Of the total, 40 works have been completed, 29 are in progress, 27 in the design phase and two in bidding. The cost so far is 3.5 billion euros (R$21.6 billion) – the Milan arena is not included in the calculation, because it was built with private resources.
The works for the Games receive criticism from environmental organizations. Legambiente, one of the most recognized in Italy, stated on Monday (2) that the Games should be “disapproved both for the aspect of environmental-economic sustainability and for the lack of attention to the climate crisis in the Alps”. One point considered mistaken is the prioritization of road works to the detriment of railways.
The NGO draws attention to the fact that the country currently has 265 deactivated ski facilities, almost double the number in 2020, due to climate change. With global warming, there has been less snow in the Alps, which forces the use of artificial snow, which consumes a lot of energy and water, and puts the future of winter sports at risk.
The attempt to minimize the impact on the region was what motivated the decentralization of the competitions, which will be spread across seven cities. To avoid the construction of structures, the intention was to take advantage of existing ones, even though the impact of travel by road remains. Milan and Cortina, the two main cities, are 400 km apart, a route that is not entirely covered by trains.
Milan will host ice sports, such as skating and hockey, in indoor gyms. Cortina will have competitions in alpine skiing, bobsled, curling, skeleton and luge. Tesero and Predazzo will concentrate cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski jumping. Livigno and Bormio will have freestyle, mountain and alpine skiing, as well as snowboarding. In Anteserva-Antholz there will be biathlon and cross-country skiing.
Accustomed to international events, such as fashion and design weeks, Milan hosts the Games with a certain indifference on the part of residents, in contrast to the enthusiasm of sponsors, who occupy the main squares in the center with temporary megastructures. Closed streets and closed schools will be some of the disruptions in the coming days.
Another thermometer is that tickets for the opening ceremony were still on sale on Monday, with prices between 260 euros (R$1,604) and 2,026 euros (R$12,499). The organizers launched a promotion for young people up to 26 years old, with two tickets for the price of one.
On Saturday (31), the people of Milan took to the streets to protest against the presence of agents from the investigative arm of ICE, a body that carried out violent scenes against immigrants in the United States. The Italian government was forced to clarify in a note, after consulting the American embassy, that the agents will not act on the streets, but inside the consulate, in the intelligence area. The United States has the largest delegation at the Games, with more than 230 athletes. For the opening, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected.
