With the 2026 Winter Games launching in less than two months, FIS President Johan Eliasch has not hidden his concern about the preparation of certain competition venues, notably that of Livigno.
All is not rosy in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. On February 6, the Olympic cauldron will be lit even though the competitions will have started 48 hours before. However, as preparations for the event enter the home stretch, some competition venues are posing problems. On the sidelines of the Alpine Ski World Cup events organized in Val-d’Isère this weekend, the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) Johan Eliasch sounded the alarm. “ Everything is not ready “, he said in comments relayed by theAFP. The Swedish leader mentions in particular the state of the Livigno site.
Eliasch criticizes the Italian government
The latter, called to host the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, must deal with insufficient snowfall due to poor artificial snow production. “
The Italian government and the regions organizing the Games still have a lot of work to do and they must accelerate », adds the boss of the FIS who specifies that his federation “calls them three times a day, morning, noon and evening”. Beyond “ this snow production problem
», Johan Eliasch criticizes the financial investment of the transalpine government which is far from being up to par in the context of organizing the Winter Games, something the country has not experienced since the 2006 edition in Turin.
“A plan B, a plan C, a plan D” planned if necessary
” Unfortunately, the Italian government has not released funds so the organizers are struggling to make ends meetwhich is a shame, he stressed. It’s inexplicable. But I hope it will be okay. » Assuring despite everything that he has “a plan B, a plan C, a plan D”, the Swedish leader regrets “finding himself in a situation we should never have found ourselves in “. It is therefore a race against time which is now launched to ensure that everything is in working order for the Winter Games with the work on a hill reservoir intended to supply the snow cannons only completed at the end of November and the commissioning of the latter which was to take place last week.
