The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina enters its final week, drawing top athletes from across the globe to northern Italy. Norway tops the medal table with 28 awards, while Team GB sits 12th out of 26 nations, securing three gold medals. Competitors eye a new national record, surpassing the five medals won in Sochi 2014, with strong chances remaining in men’s and women’s curling, women’s ski big air, and women’s ski halfpipe.
Questions Surround Post-Games Facility Legacy
Italy last hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006 in Turin, where many venues now stand abandoned despite multimillion-euro investments. Urban explorers from Broken Window Theory recently documented two sites: a bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton ice track in Cesana Torinese and a ski jump facility in Pragelato.
Cesana Torinese Ice Track Remains Intact but Idle
The ice track, a 1.4km course built for 7,000 spectators, appears remarkably preserved after 15 years of disuse. Olympic flags, cameras, and a former torch cabinet persist on site. The video host notes, “For two weeks in 2006, the world’s best athletes rocketed down this course. Twenty years later, it sits dormant, winding through the southern Alps like a scar in the forest.”
The facility hosted training and events post-Olympics but shut down its refrigeration system in 2011, leaving it empty since.
Pragelato Ski Jump Shows Decay
The Pragelato ski jump, designed for 9,000 fans and intended as a national training center, reveals neglect with overgrown weeds, vandalism, and graffiti. The host states, “This site was meant to shape the next generation of Italian ski jumpers, but it was built for a future that never came.”
2026 Organizers Emphasize Sustainable Approach
Hosts of the current games report that 85% of venues are pre-existing or temporary structures set for dismantling after the events. The Milan Olympic Village will convert into student housing, while upgrades enhance transport and infrastructure across northern Italy.
The video host warns, “When new venues rise, old ones remain as scars on the landscape—too expensive to maintain or erase.” He concludes, “Legacy promises return with the games, but what remains behind often signals venues too specialized to reuse and too costly to sustain. True benefits can uplift communities, yet today’s findings highlight a lingering financial burden if patterns persist.”
