“We believe that the only way for the Olympics to remain viable is to emphasize environmental and economic sustainability," Diana Bianchedi, project manager for the 2026 games and a two-time Olympic fencing gold medalist, said.
"If host cities are forced to spend many billions of dollars and construct infrastructure that’ll be used almost only for the Games, then we aren’t going to have many cities that want to be Olympic hosts," she said.
China's budget for the Winter Olympics in Beijing was $3.9 billion. However, the Financial Times estimated that the true cost is leaning more to $8.8 billion.
An investigation by Business Insider concluded the real price tag could be $38.5 billion – nearly ten times the official budget. Despite what the true amount is, it's still dwarfed by the $51 billion Russia spent on the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
The official figure for the Milan-Cortina Games is supposedly $1.7 billion. Additionally, every phase of development of the event will include an environmental impact assessment.
Italy’s 40-part bid for the Games included various references to words like "sustainability," "reuse," "flexibility," "reversibility," and "efficiency."
We're still four years out from Italy's Games, and many details are still under development.
"An important part of our strategy is that the Games themselves pay for the Games, and that host communities are left better off than they were before we got started," says Diana Bianchedi.
