Next year’s Olympic sliding race is expected to take place in Italy, with international Luge officials predicting on Saturday with another rumbling of Cortina d’Ampezzo’s newly rebuilt track.
The International Luge Federation has declared its tests on tracks Italy hopes to use at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, following its bobsled and skeleton counterparts. This is another indication that the sliding community is totally hoping that Olympic races will be in the Italian Alps.
“See you in Cortina in February 2026,” former longtime US President Rooge, Secretary of Phi Dwight Bell, said in a statement released by the League of Nations.
That’s not an official announcement. One of them will likely come from the International Olympic Committee. But the support of the Luge community combined with the rave reviews from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation on Friday means that the slide event will be held in Italy. Essentially, there are many questions about whether the historic Eugenio Monti Track will be held outside of hours for the Olympics.
“We are very pleased with the tests made at the Luge track in Cortina,” said Claire del Negro, Vice President of Sports at FIL. “The tests were conducted to represent 178 runs with athletes and coaches representing 11 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. The tracks were well prepared and improved every day so that the final speeds achieved so far matched the design specifications.”
Around 60 athletes from around the world (about half of Italians) have been running with bobsleds, skeletons and luges last week.
There’s still a lot to do at Cortina Truck, including building roofs and continuing to prepare the site for thousands of visitors during the 2025-26 sliding season. Various construction projects are scheduled through November 5th, and Italian officials say they believe the target is viable.
“It’s incredible what the Italians achieved here in such a short time. “I never thought of it. I arrived with pretty low expectations because there’s a lot going on around it. But when I see the energy here, they really do everything. You can probably expect this spirit at the Olympics.
Luge Athletes is set to host an international training period on the new track from October 27th to November 2nd, and will return to the test event in the final week of November. The Bobsled and Skeleton Tour will host an international training period from November 7th to 16th, with the World Cup race, which opens on November 17th to 23rd.
The 1.749km (1.09mph) Cortina track has an estimated top speed of 145kph (90mph) and features 16 curves with a scheduled runtime of 55-60 seconds.
The Olympic Regional Development Agency, a state agency in New York, oversees the Olympic facilities at Lake Placid. This includes the Mount Van Hevenberg sliding complex, but has made major upgrades to this year’s refrigeration system and other improvements, and has planned whether the Olympic sliding race had come to the Adirondacks. The final run of the season on Lake Placid’s tracks has been filmed this weekend, with construction already underway at the facility.
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