While the environmental impact of the 2026 Winter Olympics is often associated with mountain areas, cities must not be overlooked. Milan itself is already experiencing tangible effects of the “Olympic rush”.

The construction of new facilities for ice sports hosted by the city — including the speed skating venue in the Fiera area and the ice hockey arena in Rho, within the Milan Metropolitan District — has resulted in significant land use and energy consumption [1]. Some of these structures are intended to remain in use after the Games. However, the Olympic-related interventions — such as the creation and maintenance of ice surfaces and the temporary technical infrastructures required for competitions — are by definition short-lived, raising questions about proportionality, resource use, and long-term coherence with the city’s needs.

Two emblematic cases stand out. The speed skating rink is being built ex novo as a temporary Olympic installation, replacing pre-existing infrastructures, despite alternative solutions already available, such as the rink in Baselga di Pinè and Turin’s Oval Lingotto, built for the 2006 Winter Games and requiring only renovation [2].

Similarly, the Arena Santa Giulia — conceived as a multi-purpose venue and intended to host ice hockey during the Olympics — has required specific derogations in order to meet the technical requirements for hockey competitions, highlighting a gap between its original design and Olympic needs [2].

These choices have contributed to infrastructure costs rising by several million euros and further intensifying pressure on an urban context already marked by land consumption, high energy demand, and persistent governance challenges.

The environmental, economic, and social dynamics behind the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics have come under increasing scrutiny, raising growing criticism of the governance framework adopted for the Games.

In 2025, Giuseppe Pietrobelli, journalist from ilFattoQuotidiano, addressed these issues in his book A Mountain of Money. Waste, unfinished projects and business: the scandal of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

The book places the upcoming Games within a broader Italian pattern of mega-events marked by cost overruns, unfinished works, and contested legacies. Drawing parallels with the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and the 2015 Milan Expo, it highlights an organisational model that repeatedly prioritises political rhetoric and short-term visibility over public accountability and long-term territorial needs [2].

Rather than questioning the value of sport itself, the book exposes a governance model in which extraordinary events are used to justify extraordinary derogations [3].

Within the Milano-Cortina 2026 framework, promises of low-cost and sustainable Games have been systematically contradicted by escalating public investments, emergency procedures, and infrastructure choices that often serve tourism interests more than local communities [2].

While politicians and representatives of CONI (Italian National Olympic Committee) frame the Games as an opportunity for economic and touristic revival, a closer environmental and social assessment reveals a series of unresolved issues.

Complaints from associations such as Mountain Wilderness Italia, Legambiente, local committees, and civic networks do not deny that the Olympics may bring benefits. However, they question how much of the promised sustainability will be real and lasting, and how much remains mere rhetoric — especially in a historical moment marked by climate urgency and the need for responsible territorial policies.

The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics represents a unique opportunity to showcase Italy on the global stage. Yet the preparation phase has been overshadowed by environmental impacts, governance gaps, and persistent opacity that cannot be ignored. Italy cannot be reduced to a fairy-tale backdrop for a spectacle: its mountains and cities are fragile ecosystems, already under severe pressure from climate change and human interventions.

When the Olympic Torch fades, we will have to ask what kind of territories will remain, and whether we can finally learn from past mega-events to safeguard both natural and social heritage.

Cover and preview image: Olympic rings with a landscape. Image by Scott Blair from Pixabay.