A lot has modified since Cortina d’Ampezzo final hosted Winter Games

That expanse, protecting a file 23,000 sq. kilometers, is what Kirsty Coventry, the International Olympic Committee president overseeing her first Games, calls “the new normalcy.”

The Winter Olympics, which now embrace 16 sports activities and 116 medal occasions, have expanded so quickly that they should be shared amongst a number of locales, as they are going to be in France in 2030.

When Cortina staged the Games in 1956 there was no freestyle snowboarding, snowboarding nor biathlon on this system, no curling nor short-track speedskating, no luge, skeleton nor ski mountaineering.

The similar male-dominated sports activities had been provided for many years — Alpine and Nordic snowboarding, speedskating, hockey, and bobsled. Women, who comprised solely 134 of the 825 athletes, have been restricted to snowboarding and determine skating.

This time there’s gender fairness — 1,538 males, 1,362 girls — in what shall be a real twenty first century Games reflecting fashionable challenges.

Climate change has produced snowmaking complications within the mountain venues. The brutal battle in Ukraine has led to the banning from the Games of invading Russia and ally Belarus, though vetted “independent neutral athletes” from these nations shall be allowed to compete. And development prices, the majority of the $5 billion funds, are daunting.

So few cities have been keen to pay for an costly 17-day carnival that the IOC now favors bidders with present or momentary amenities. Even so, solely Milan and Stockholm put in for this one.

Cortina, scheduled to be the host of the canceled 1944 Games, solely needed to construct an ice area and a speedskating oval for 1956 at a price of $730,000. All of the venues have been outside (for the final time). And there was no Olympic village — athletes stayed in accommodations and personal houses.

This time there’ll be two important villages and 4 smaller ones, with the Cortina athletes being housed in a whole bunch of rental cellular houses. And the organizers found that the worth tag made it impractical to renovate some present amenities.

Instead of placing a roof on the speedskating oval at Baselga di Pine, which might have value $50 million, a short lived construction at Fiera Milano Rho was constructed for half that.

And somewhat than replace Cortina’s sliding observe for a fifth time for $80 million, the organizers laid out a brand new one for $88 million.

The new 16,000-seat Santagiulia hockey area was to this point not on time final fall that the National Hockey League, whose gamers are returning to the Games for the primary time in a dozen years, stated they wouldn’t come if the ice was unsafe.

The area nonetheless isn’t completed — the adjoining follow rink, locker rooms, and media galleries want work — nevertheless it’s shut sufficient. “We’re going to have a tournament in this building,” declared Luc Tardif, the worldwide hockey federation president.

Except for a small gap on the skating floor that wanted patching, final weekend’s official check occasion amongst Italian League groups was deemed successful after three video games. “The puck was still sliding,” Tardif concluded. “So that’s a good test.”

The situation of the outside venues was extra of a query in current months. Sufficient snowflakes even in a colder period have been a priority in 1956, when troopers trucked in additional white stuff to cowl the Alpine programs.

That’s much more of a difficulty at a time when hotter winters steadily pressure World Cup officers to shift races to websites in different nations.

For some time in Livigno, the place the freestyle snowboarding and snowboarding occasions shall be held, organizers had bother making and retaining sufficient snow amid springlike temperatures.

But the mercury just lately dropped sufficient for a World Cup super-G occasion to be held there. “There should be no issue to complete everything on time as planned,” reckoned Johan Eliasch, the worldwide ski federation president.

As they did in Cortina in 1956, the organizers have relied on the fabled Italian artwork of “arrangiarsi,” of improvising below stress.

Even Turin, the final European metropolis to host the Games, in 2006, couldn’t have dealt with the present variety of athletes, which has practically doubled since.

What’s notable is {that a} file 47 % of them are feminine. Except for Nordic mixed, they’ll be taking part in the identical disciplines and nearly all the time in the identical occasions and distances because the males, together with the 50-kilometer cross-country race.

The 1956 Games have been televised for the primary time however proven solely in Europe as an experiment. In the United States, the motion was accessible by radio or rumor or by ready per week and watching highlights on the native theater on the Pathé newsreel between the Roadrunner and the Stooges.

This time, the complete planet shall be watching, lots of the viewers utilizing a paid streaming service. The fashionable Games embrace practically thrice as many nations as they did seven many years in the past, practically 4 occasions extra athletes, and 5 occasions extra medal occasions.

Cortina can solely deal with a fraction of them — the ladies’s Alpine races, the sliding occasions, and curling. But the atmosphere hasn’t modified since 1956. The Corso Italia and the 1850s bell tower (“Cianpanin”) made from Dolomite stone stay as they have been — and the locals nonetheless communicate Ampezzano.

John Powers could be reached at [email protected].