The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics saw costs escalate beyond initial projections, with preparations facing near-impossible timelines. Despite these challenges, organisers managed to deliver most of the planned events by Friday’s opening ceremony. Italian organizers are still racing to finalize some venues, under intense pressure and a burgeoning budget.
Originally budgeted at around $1.3 billion for the Games, this figure has risen to over $1.7 billion, including significant ancillary infrastructure costs amounting to $3.5 billion in public funds.
In his final progress report before the Games began, CEO Andrea Varnier of the organizing committee acknowledged the arduous journey. “This journey has proven more challenging than initially anticipated, with both expected and unforeseen obstacles,” he stated. “The financial situation of our organising committee has been consistently tough throughout these years.”
Varnier also highlighted that the Games’ cost exceeded initial candidature budget projections. Despite this, organizers acknowledged, “You will not find in these Games everything you might have expected or everything we originally wanted to have.”
An essential change mid-preparations involved constructing a new multi-million-dollar sliding centre at Cortina, which had tightest deadlines among all construction projects. The IOC opposed this move, favoring existing venues possibly located in neighboring countries such as Austria, Switzerland, France, and Germany.
Organizers are now racing to complete the Santagiulia ice hockey stadium, only recently tested in January.
Varnier emphasized that “There are moments when an organising committee must operate under emergency conditions, and the Milano Cortina Games were certainly one of those cases. With extremely tight deadlines, we worked under constant pressure from all sides.”