Cortina Winter Games

Death threats against mayor over ice channel

The planned ice channel in Cortina is highly controversial.(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The mayor of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Gianluca Lorenzi, has received an anonymous letter containing death threats in connection with the construction of a new bobsleigh, skeleton and luge track for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"If you go ahead with the construction of the bobsleigh track, we will eliminate you," says the letter, which Lorenzi received according to local media. The head of the village filed a complaint with the police.

"Now it's up to the investigators to clear up this incident," said the mayor, according to media reports. The threats come after a fierce controversy over the felling of dozens of trees to make way for the new ice canal. Among other things, five hundred-year-old larch trees are to be cut down on an area of 20,000 square meters. Numerous environmental associations have lodged complaints. They are calling for a review of compliance with landscape protection regulations.

Time pressure during the work
The death threats arrived shortly after the official handover of the construction site to the Pizzarotti company. This company has been commissioned by the government in Rome with the 81 million euro project. The work must be completed within a year. The environmental activists criticized the fact that the project was never publicly presented to the citizens of Cortina. Security precautions have been tightened due to concerns about attacks on the construction site.

The competition tests are scheduled for the first two months of 2025, one year before the opening of the 2026 Winter Games.