Lausanne (AFP)
The 2026 Olympic Winter Games were awarded to the Italian candidacy of Milan / Cortina d'Ampezzo, by the International Olympic Committee meeting in session Monday in Lausanne.
The Italian bid, which includes an opening ceremony in Milan and Alpine skiing events in Bormio for men and Cortina d'Ampezzo for women, was preferred to Stockholm / Are. The Winter Olympics will be held from February 6 to 22, 2026.
"Italy won," said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday to back the transalpine dossier.
"We are proud of this great result: Italy has won, a whole country that has worked together with the ambition to succeed and to offer the world a memorable sporting event", wrote Conte on Twitter, after leaving Lausanne even before the vote of the IOC members.
- 20,000 more jobs -
According to Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, "this will make at least five billion added value and 20,000 jobs in addition to so many roads and sports facilities".
The Italian candidate, who was the favorite, won by 47 votes to 34 in Stockholm, one of the 82 voting members of the IOC abstaining.
"I am very moved and it is a very important result not only for me but for the whole country," commented Giavanni Malago, head of the Italian bid, with tremolos in his voice.
This nomination "was rather complicated at first, but what we have achieved is a perfect representation of what our country can do," said Malago, who has recently become a member of the IOC and will take the helm of the Organizing Committee.
Italy has for the third time in its history the Olympic Winter Games after those of 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo and 2006 in Turin. Sweden, which organized the summer Olympics in 1912, never organized the Winter Olympics.
"What really made the difference was the difference in the level of popular support for the two candidates and maybe that's why the city of Stockholm was not ready to sign the host-city contract" explained IOC President Thomas Bach.
The choice of a European city puts an end to a long Asian parenthesis, with the Olympics-2018 in Pyeogchang (South Korea) and Beijing in 2022.
- 20 years after Turin -
While many were on the starting line, several contenders gave up, namely Calgary (Canada), Graz (Austria), Sapporo (Japan) and Sion (Switzerland), mostly for fear of costs and lack of support. popular. The Turkish resort of Erzurum was dismissed by the IOC in October 2018.
After Rome's abortive candidacy for the summer Olympics in 2024, Giovanni Malago this time succeeded the sacred union, between political and economic world, although Turin integrated in the candidacy originally left the ship en route.
The Italian dossier combines the two richest regions of Italy, Lombardy (Milan) and Veneto (Cortina). In addition, it relies on iconic sites familiar with major international competitions, such as Cortina, host of the 1956 Olympic Games, Bormio and Anterselva for biathlon.
The opening ceremony will take place in the San Siro stadium in Milan and the closing ceremony in the Roman arenas of Verona.
Stockholm, meanwhile, suffered from the IOC's concerns about the reality of the guarantees provided, the late support of the government despite Prime Minister Stefan Löfven's presence in Lausanne on Monday and the relative lack of popular support.
"I want to congratulate Italy, Milan and Cortina for their fantastic performance," responded Peter Eriksson, Sweden's Minister for International Cooperation and Development. "We fought you in football not so long ago for the World Cup (at the roadblocks for the 2018 World Cup, Ed) and now you're fighting for the Olympics, so I'd say there's has one everywhere ".
? 2019 AFP