The ground-to-ceiling home windows in Andrea Varnier’s Forty fourth-floor workplace provide a sweeping view of Milan and a number of the mountains that can host the 2026 Winter Olympics, however Varnier jokes that the panorama isn’t for him. He’s nearly by no means on this workplace, he admits. He hardly ever makes use of the desk. There’s simply no time to sit down nonetheless, he says with a shrug.
The Milan-Cortina Winter Video games are nonetheless nearly three years away. However Varnier, a veteran of earlier Olympics in Turin, Rio de Janeiro and Beijing, is aware of higher than most how briskly these years will go. He additionally is aware of how a lot work there’s left to do.
What Milan-Cortina organizers and the Worldwide Olympic Committee are planning for 2026 is essentially the most sprawling Winter Video games in historical past: determine skating and ice hockey in Milan, the cosmopolitan hub of Italy’s north; freestyle snowboarding and snowboarding in Livigno, near the Swiss border; biathlon in Anterselva, a German-speaking area within the shadow of Austria; and curling, bobsled and Alpine snowboarding in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the location of the 1956 Winter Video games.
The excellent news? About 90 % of the competitors venues for the Video games exist already, Olympic officers stated. The dangerous? At the very least two main parts, the Olympic Village and the hockey area, are nonetheless within the earliest phases of building, and greater initiatives like highways and rail hyperlinks are out of the organizers’ management.
In an interview final month within the workplace he hardly ever makes use of, Varnier, who took on the chief govt function final November, mentioned managing an occasion unfold over 8,500 sq. miles; how Italy’s mannequin may be the way forward for the Olympics; and what retains him up at evening.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
The I.O.C. has not too long ago embraced this new form of sprawling Olympics. Torino was large. Vancouver was large. Beijing was large. However that is larger?
That is positively larger.
And so that you’re proposing competitors clusters moderately than a single web site?
We’ve got four-slash-five of these. Plus, a closing ceremony within the Roman amphitheater in Verona. Which provides an additional fascinating merchandise, however in fact additionally an additional complication. However the concept of the Winter Video games is that they should be unfold out as a result of there’s no mountain metropolis or mountain village that’s ready these days to maintain the Video games.
That’s why you want Milan.
You want town. So it’s all the time a metropolis someplace. And a mountain shut sufficient to that. It will get farther and farther. So Torino. Then Vancouver. After which Beijing. Right here it’s totally different. It’s a very totally different idea. The concept right here is to, to begin with, go the place the infrastructure and the expertise is. In order that’s the way in which it was chosen.
So there’s Milan, which is essentially the most modern metropolis we have now on this nation, however the place there’s not a selected custom for winter sports activities. Nevertheless it’s Milano. After which we go in fact to Cortina, with its historical past and its expertise in Alpine snowboarding. They’ve a really robust custom in curling. They’ve an unbelievable historical past in bobsleigh and the sliding sports activities. Then we go to Anterselva: That’s probably the greatest, finest acknowledged websites for biathlon on the earth. Then we have now Val di Fiemme, the place Nordic sports activities are a really longstanding custom. A number of editions of world championships. So there’s already the infrastructure. Sure, we have now to modernize. Nevertheless it’s already there, so we don’t should construct.
The majority of the competitors venues exist already, which is able to save on price range and time. However how do you join all these items?
It’s essential that we perceive that there’s a brand new system. As a result of if this idea works, it can imply extra alternatives for different international locations to host the Video games. So transportation, for instance: We are going to do in-cluster transportation, after which we are going to advocate using public transportation between clusters as a lot as doable.
We’re making an attempt to rationalize the complete system for this Video games, and hopefully to go away as a legacy for future potential organizing committees or candidate cities, that they’ll consider the Video games in a bigger space, to contain a bigger piece of the inhabitants, to make use of current infrastructure.
Is that as a result of the I.O.C. can’t ask cities or international locations to spend $50 billion, as Russia did for the Sochi Video games? As a result of no one would need to host?
The chance is that no one will do the Video games in Europe anymore. The Winter Video games. The Summer time Video games is a unique story. And Europe, in any case, it’s the guts of winter sports activities. I imply, with all due respect to all people: It was born right here, and the Alps are the Alps.
The Video games should go in all places, and to as many international locations as doable. But when we don’t discover a totally different system, in Europe it will likely be extraordinarily troublesome. As a result of, I imply, this nation remains to be a G7 nation, and in case you can’t afford the Video games, then who can afford to host the Video games?
When you concentrate on establishing experiences elsewhere for individuals, it’s nearly as in case you’re working a number of Video games directly.
In a method, sure. However the precept that we would like is that, to begin with, it’s the identical thread that connects every little thing and the expertise that you just reside. After all, the sports activities are totally different, however they’re anyway.
How is the connection with the I.O.C.? After Pyeongchang and Beijing, they should be fairly snug to be again on what’s acquainted floor for them.
I can’t reply on behalf of the I.O.C., however it’s a nice consolation for us as an organizing committee, and I’m certain for them. They’re very concerned as a result of they see us as a possibility for optimization of the Winter Video games. As a result of a number of the issues that we’ll begin right here might develop into a brand new norm for the long run.
What retains you up at evening?
Oh, so many issues. However largely that point is brief. We’ve got to get well a number of the time that was misplaced.
It’s important to perceive that this organizing committee began in January 2020, as a result of the task of the Video games was in June 2019, and this nation was totally closed for 3 and a half months, mainly. And it was very troublesome to start out a company like this in such a brand new method. And so the pandemic continued after which when it finishes the warfare began, so it was a troublesome time. Now we don’t have excuses anymore.
One other problem is to seek out the businesses to cowl that a part of the price range that needs to be coated by home companions. And you can’t contain companions, on the related price, only for the final six months. So that is for me essentially the most vital factor.
I are likely to sleep, however that worries me: money and time.