'Incredible feeling'

Perhaps to appease those worried about its future after the Olympics, the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, hailed the track, the first in the world, its promoters say, to use glycol, rather than ammonia for its refrigeration, as "our Guggenheim Museum".

"People will come to see a great achievement in terms of architecture and engineering," he said.

Local conservation groups had expressed anger over both the track's environmental impact and its usefulness after the Olympics, as bobsleigh, luge and skeleton are very niche sports in Italy.

The final work on the start and finish areas and the locker rooms will be completed by November.

By completion, the 'Sliding Centre' will have cost 118 million euros ($127m), while the budget for the 2026 Olympic Games is five billion euros, including 3.5 billion euros for the construction and renovation of sports venues and transportation infrastructure.

"Building a track in 305 days has never been done before," said Ivo Ferriani, president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), noting that the average construction time for such a venue is 700 days.

"To be honest, I never really doubted, myself. It was a huge challenge, but we managed to turn a problem into a model," he said.

"It's an incredible feeling to go down this track," said Italian bobsledder Patrick Baumgartner.

"I've been doing this sport for 15 years, and this is the first time I've piloted on a track in Italy, at home."

There are test events at the Cortina track for all three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge — scheduled for throughout the fall. They will be important for sliders to familiarize themselves with the track and feel safe when competing at the Olympics.

Safety has taken on more importance since the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training crash hours before the start of the opening ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Luge athletes are scheduled to have an international training period at the new track from Oct 27 through Nov 2, then return for a test event at the venue in the final week of November.

The bobsled and skeleton tours will hold their respective international training periods at the track from Nov 7-16, followed by the season-opening World Cup races there from Nov 17-23.

Agencies