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Now that Milan-Cortina Olympics are over, what next? Debts and unfinished construction sites

Now that the spotlight on the Games has faded, what remains are the projects still to be built and the budget shortfalls to be made up – whatever Minister Salvini may say. Once again, it will be the public purse that has to cover the losses and shortfalls in revenue: we visited the construction sites to see what remains of the Games' former glory

Natalie SclippaRedattrice lavialibera

Paolo ValentiRedattore lavialibera

4 maggio 2026

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Two months have passed since the closing ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. For the organising committees and the government, it was “an extraordinary opportunity to show the world what Italy is capable of when it works as a team, with seriousness, pragmatism and vision”, as Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini noted a few days ago in response to a parliamentary question.

Once the spotlight had faded and the final medals had been awarded, however, all that remained in the areas affected by the Italian Games was the red of debt and the desolation of the most expensive and controversial projects. We visited them: in Cortina, the bobsleigh track lies abandoned and the Apollonio-Socrepes cable car is still a building site. In Livigno, the piles of artificial snow are the only white patches still holding out against spring, whilst a bulldozer has cleared away the five Olympic rings.

Milan–Cortina 2026: Only 13% of Olympic Spending Goes to Sport, While Costs and Transparency Concerns Grow

Olympic debts: the IOC isn’t paying, and the regions are footing the bill

Now that the race against time to complete the works “essential for the Games” is over and “the good international impression” has been made, monitoring the true (legacy) of the Olympics will be a more arduous task. Meanwhile, the first major debts of the Milano-Cortina Foundation to the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) and transport companies that had added special services for the event are coming to light.

Let’s start with the Foundation’s debt: the organising body’s balance sheet is in the red by €310 million. Weighing on the accounts are costs that have risen compared to the 2019 estimates – around €230 million more – and revenues that are €80 million lower than forecast. Formally, the Fondazione Milano-Cortina is a private body (the Constitutional Court is yet to rule on the legitimacy of this definition), but its members are public bodies and therefore the administrations involved in the Games will foot the bill: the State, the Veneto and Lombardy regions, the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, and the municipalities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The regions will have to cover approximately 30 and 60 million respectively, whilst the allocation for Trento will be 20 million and for Bolzano 6 million.

Sports bodies are also waiting to receive substantial sums from the Foundation: 53 million in total between CONI and CIP. The budgets of the two committees are in a precarious state: the former has postponed approval until 30 June, whilst the latter has cut 5.4 million from its assets, pending the allocations.

The IOC has already contributed ‘unprecedentedly and beyond what was agreed’

When news of the debts began to circulate, the public shareholders turned to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which on the final day of competition had awarded President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and President Giorgia Meloni the Olympic Order in Gold, the highest honour conferred by the organisation for “those who have rendered exceptional service to the Olympic cause through their contribution to the Olympic Movement”. On that same occasion, the silver medal was awarded to ministers Andrea Abodi, Matteo Salvini and Giancarlo Giorgetti, the president of the Milan-Cortina Infrastructure Company (Simico) Fabio Massimo Saldini, the mayors of Milan and Cortina, Giuseppe Sala and Gianluca Lorenzi, the governors of Lombardy and Veneto, Attilio Fontana and Alberto Stefani, the presidents of the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, Maurizio Fugatti and Arno Kompatscher, the president of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation Giovanni Malagò, the CEO Andrea Varnier and the Chief Operating Officer for the Games Andrea Francisi.

Once the pleasantries and customary photos were over, the IOC reacted to the request for further funds in an uncompromising manner. In a statement, it announced that it had “contributed significantly more than the mere benefits and rights valued at $925 million”. The IOC has paid $625 million to the Foundation, representing an unprecedented financial commitment, justified by the desire to support the first Games spread across multiple regions. Exceptional, yes, but the debts will have to be repaid by Italy.

Milan–Cortina 2026: only 13% of Olympic spending goes to sport, while costs and transparency concerns grow

Transport issue: Dolomiti Bus not paid, says Veneto region

The invoice arrived at the end of April: a €5 million deposit, with a further €4 million to be collected later from Dolomiti Bus, for the extra work carried out during the Olympics. One hundred additional vehicles and around 200 extra drivers shuttled between the competition venues in the Veneto region and the transport hubs with car parks. As reported by Damiano Tormen in "Il Gazzettino", the government had earmarked €25 million for Olympic transport in the 2024 budget law, but this money never reached the regions, which were therefore unable to pay the companies. A shortfall that risked throwing the transport company’s finances into disarray; without revenue, it cannot even pay its subcontractors. In early May, as Luca Andreazza highlighted in Il Dolomiti, the Veneto regional councillor for mobility and transport, Diego Ruzza, clarified that the regional administration had advanced the ministerial funds to the province of Belluno to ‘ensure the necessary liquidity to meet its obligations’.

Abandoned or unfinished works

One of the greatest risks is that the negative consequences of the Games will remain a local issue. To prevent this from happening, calls are continuing to be made at national and European level for an account of what has been done. Last week, responding to a parliamentary question from Luana Zanella, MP for the Green and Left Alliance, Minister Salvini repeated the mantra of the “great demonstration of efficiency by a united and winning team, the Italian one”. However, as regards the bobsleigh track and the Apollonio-Socrepes cable car, both in Cortina, there are still many unknowns.

No ice and extensive damage on the bobsleigh track

Regarding the bobsleigh track, the Deputy Prime Minister reiterated: “Viewers saw that it was completed in time for the Games, approved by the relevant federations, handed over to the Milano-Cortina Foundation and appreciated by all the athletes. Checks are currently underway with the Foundation, Simico and the local council to ascertain any damage, including that caused by vandalism, so as to activate the insurance cover taken out by the Foundation for the staging of the Games. The infrastructure, as planned, will be returned to Simico to complete the remaining works, such as the landscaping, which will be finished by autumn.”

Rather than the vandalism, which the minister had spoken of during the construction work, accusing activists opposed to the project of having left a 500-kilo pipe on the track – a claim he was later proven wrong about (it was an accident) – the problems encountered after the Games are technical. The post-Olympic inspection report documents damage amounting to at least one million euros: “Broken pressure gauges and protective covers, damaged installation ducts and insulation, bent pipes, loose or missing screws on the sides, detached junction boxes, crushed electrical panels, loose or cut cables, damaged guardrail mesh, and damaged plasterboard and doors,” reported Fabio Gobbato for Salto. “This is not a single fault, but a series of critical issues affecting both the structural elements and the systems.” And now, when viewed up close, the facility still looks very much like an open-air construction site. This damage has already caused the cancellation of the Italian bobsleigh, skeleton and luge championships, scheduled for 10–12 March at the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre. The championships planned for the autumn are also at risk.

The cable car on the landslide

When asked about the Cortina cable car, Salvini was quick to respond: “I have already reported technical delays regarding the Apollonio-Socrepes cable car; the facility will be put into operation as soon as all checks have been completed.” The infrastructure, which was intended to transport 2,500 athletes and spectators per hour during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games, remains at a standstill, despite being listed as completed on the public works portal. On the Simico portal, the lift is listed as completed, but the images here too show a very different reality: an open construction site on a landslide that continues to shift. The Court of Auditors has opened an investigation to clarify the procedure followed. A waste of €35 million.

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