Retired Italian downhiller Kristian Ghedina looks ahead to Cortina 2026 Olympics

Kristian Ghedina intently watched as his brother Gianpietro, the mayor of Cortina d’Ampezzo, alongside Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala, received the Olympic flag from IOC president Thomas Bach at the Beijing closing ceremony.

The 1956 Winter Olympic resort hosted a viewing party in the town’s central piazza, attended by Cortina locals who gathered on a splendid winter afternoon across the Italian Dolomites.

With the Olympic flag having been passed from Beijing to Milano-Cortina, the retired Italian racer says he is ready to welcome skiers and the greater winter sports world, as an unofficial ambassador in his hometown, to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

“It’s a huge emotion because it’s been 66 years since the Olympic Games were in Cortina, and for us it’s a pleasure and very good opportunity to make something new for our city, our town and our country,” Ghedina tells Ski Racing Media about the torch being passed and observing the moment at the Cortina celebration.

“Everybody knows that here in Italy we have nice traditions, the people, the food, and I invite everyone here because I think after they come for the Olympic Games, they’ll go home with a smile,” he said.

Ghedina sped to 13 World Cup victories and 29 downhill podiums over 17 seasons on tour, including his first win coming in Cortina in February 1990. His best Olympic finishes were a pair of sixths – in the combined at Albertville 1992, his first Games, and in the downhill at Nagano 1998. The Italian racer also collected three world championship medals, his first being a silver in the combined at the 1991 Saalbach championships, at age 21. Ghedina’s Kitzbühel Hahnenkamm trophies are on display at a local pizzeria.

The 52-year-old Italian assures that his hometown is already embracing the Olympic spirit and is prepared to rise to the challenges ahead.

The famed Tofane slopes and parts of the Olympia delle Tofane course, which the women descend annually during January’s World Cup and were also home to the 2021 world championships, will once again be the scene for Olympic races in February 2026, 70 years after Austrian legend Toni Sailer won three gold medals.

“We’ll have five sports in Cortina, but for us the most important will be the women’s alpine skiing,” Ghedina said. “It will be a pleasure and I’ll be very happy to be here.”

Italy will become the first country to demonstrate the IOC’s new dual city Olympic concept, with the XXIIII Winter Games being shared between Milan and Cortina, the co-hosts roughly 400 kilometers apart.

Cortina hosts all women’s Alpine ski events, while the men will be competing in Bormio, situated some 300 kilometers west and more than a five-hour drive from the Dolomites resort.

Brignone expresses concerns

Not all Italian ski racers are as enthused about Milan Cortina 2026 as Ghedina. Fresh off her double Olympic medal performance in Beijing, Federica Brignone expressed her disapproval and concern that the upcoming Winter Games will lack Olympic spirit due to the vastly spread out competition venues and travel distances between the numerous clusters.

“For sure I won’t be in Milan Cortina, the Olympic spirit will be missing,” the 31-year-old Brignone surprisingly told Rai Sport in Beijing.

“The Alps are fantastic, we will finally have the Olympic Games back in Europe,” said Brignone, who won giant slalom silver and the combined bronze in China.

“I liked coming to new countries, but these are slopes used to hosting Alpine skiing competitions,” the veteran Italian racer continued. “The only bad thing is that it will all be scattered. There will be no Olympic Village, there will be no Olympic spirit – we will each be in a different place.”

Italian Olympic Committee president and IOC member Giovanni Malagò has addressed these unique circumstances numerous times, noting that they are designed to reduce costs and take advantage of existing, proven venues.

“We are very familiar with many of the issues here – it is the story of a modern Olympics,” Malago said. “We have involved not just a city, but an entire territory.”

Ghedina’s ambitious plans for 2026

Still, despite some expressing concerns, Ghedina, with his boyish enthusiasm and Italian spirit, says he cannot wait.

Asked kiddingly if he has any intentions to attempt a comeback and race at a sixth Olympic Games in his hometown, come February of 2026, Ghedina responds with a big grin, a laugh, and says: “In my head, yes, but in my body, my legs, it’s finished.

“Maybe, I will be a forerunner – now I am 52, but in 2026, I’ll be 56, maybe it’s a little bit too old.”

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