The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will not arrive on the Pinè plateau . After many rumors, the confirmation came from the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò, and the president of the Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti, in the context of a conference organized in Baselga di Pinè. The decision is reportedly due in part to the redevelopment costs of the current Ice Rink, which have risen to between 70 and 75 million euros (initial estimates were 50.5 million), in part to the technical opinion of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which notes the unsustainability of the plant in the long term.

«I defended the original master plan, but there comes a time when the indefensible cannot be defended: everything that has happened in the meantime, from Covid to the war, has gone against us. Baselga is not a victim, but one of the cases that systematically occur in the organization of an international event such as the Olympics», explained Malagò , in front of the representatives of the local community. The Municipality of Baselga di Pinè will in any case obtain the allocation initially foreseen by the Province of Trento for the ice stadium, which will be used to redevelop the existing winter sports facilities (for 29 million euros) and for infrastructural works in the area (21, 5 million euros).

Malagò, who has asked the IOC for the possibility of hosting at least one demonstration discipline in the Ice Rink of Baselga di Pinè, has instead announced his intention to nominate Lombardy and Trentino, with the Pinè plateau, to host the Winter Olympics 2028 youth teams, which do not require a covered ice stadium.

As far as the new venue for the Milan-Cortina ice competitions is concerned, Malagò did not go too far, specifying that there is "no automatism which, with the Baselga di Pinè facility gone, will bring long track skating to Turin" .