No bobsled in Cortina: the statement from Fisi
No bobsleigh in Cortina: the statement of Fisi
Fisi è intervened with an official statement after Giovanni Malagò announced that the new bobsleigh track in Cortina d'Ampezzo will not be built.
"The ice disciplines belonging to the Italian Winter Sports Federation have made an important contribution to enriching the Olympic medal table of Italian sports, with thirty-one medals in total, divided among eighteen for luge (including seven golds), twelve for bobsleigh (four golds) and one for skeleton,” reads the note issued by the Italian Winter Sports Federation. Names such as those of the "Flying Red" Eugenio Monti, Armin Zoeggeler and Nino Bibbia have written indelible pages in the history of world sport, è also thanks to their feats that FISI continues to invest in order to maintain the maximum level of competitivenessà of our teams. Investments that, in the calendar year 2023 alone, amounted to almost 1.5 million euros between luge, bobsleigh and skeleton for competitive activities alone, to which must be added the expenses for fees, van rental and related insurance".
"The news of the move abroad of the Milan-Cortina 2026 competitions related to the specialties in question leaves us dismayed,” says President Roda. “The Italian Winter Sports Federation has tried in every way to make people understand the importance of these disciplines. We will miss a piece of history, the Cortina track would have represented the ideal opportunity to relaunch movements that have given glory and popularity to Italian sport, the basis for building the athletes of the future will be lost. And even the justification of high costs is not è sufficient to explain such a big decision. In Italy, unfortunately, there is no artificial track where teams can train, every year our athletes are forced to go abroad, with related increases in costs and the logical consequence of having fewer opportunities to turn on the tracks than in other nations. I believe this is the’final act, destined to sink our movement on the ice".
