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Speaker 1: All right, we've been watching the Olympics this past week

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Speaker 1: or so, But did it ever occur to you what

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Speaker 1: a nightmare these events are for the host city. I mean,

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Speaker 1: imagine the giant infrastructure you have to create for the athletes,

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Speaker 1: the press, and visitors from all over the world. There

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Speaker 1: are the multitude of venues, places for the athletes and

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Speaker 1: all those spectators to sleep and eat and be entertained,

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Speaker 1: all for two short weeks of exposure. Well guess what

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Speaker 1: it originally looked like. These twenty twenty six Winter Games

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Speaker 1: might not happen. I'm Patty Steele. What happens when nobody

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Speaker 1: wants to come to your party? That's next on the backstory.

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Speaker 1: The backstory is back. By the late twenty tens, hosting

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Speaker 1: the Olympics had become kind of a civic nightmare. Cities

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Speaker 1: were backing out, referendums were failing, budgets exploding. The Winter

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Speaker 1: Games in particular were starting to look like a relic,

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Speaker 1: too expensive, too destructive, and too risky for democratic countries

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Speaker 1: to justify. So when the IOC open bidding for the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six Winter Olympics, something shocking, or maybe not

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Speaker 1: so shocking, happened. Almost nobody showed up. Stockholm, Switzerland Withdrew

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Speaker 1: graz Austria backed out, Supporo, Japan hesitated, Calgary, Canada said

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Speaker 1: no again. The Winter Olympics, once the crown jewel of

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Speaker 1: global sport, were suddenly homeless. And that's when Italy made

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Speaker 1: an offer that wasn't ambitious at all. You've heard the line,

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Speaker 1: if you build it, they will come Riot, Well, how

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Speaker 1: about Italy's plan. If we don't build it, they will come. Seriously,

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Speaker 1: Italy's pitch was basically, what if we don't build anything.

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Speaker 1: Instead of promising gleaming new stadiums, Italy pitch something radical.

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Speaker 1: At least buy Olympic standards, use existing venues, spread events

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Speaker 1: across regions instead of forcing one megacity, put a cap

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Speaker 1: on costs, and finally, except that the Olympics should fit

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Speaker 1: into a country, not bulldozing. They wanted to run the

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Speaker 1: Games in two very different places, Milan and Cortina Dempezzo.

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Speaker 1: Milan a gorgeous city which, while historic, is also very modern,

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Speaker 1: a financial center and fashion forward. Cortina, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: is a small Alpine town that had already hosted the

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Speaker 1: Winter Olympics once seventy years ago in nineteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: Italy wasn't trying to sell a spectacle, It was selling survival.

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Speaker 1: The IOC, desperate to prove the game still had a future,

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Speaker 1: said you got it. Here's the interesting part. Unlike past games,

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Speaker 1: the Winter twenty twenty six Olympics has no single Olympic village.

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Speaker 1: No unified footprint events are scattered. There are speed skating

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Speaker 1: in Milan, skiing in Courtina, hockey is in cities hours apart.

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Speaker 1: Sliding events have been revived on historic tracks instead of

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Speaker 1: new megastructures. Instead of an Olympic city, the Italians offered

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Speaker 1: an Olympic network. Not everybody was a fan of the idea.

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Speaker 1: Critics called it messy, while supporters called it realistic in actuality.

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Speaker 1: Behind the scenes, this was the IOC quietly admitting something

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Speaker 1: it had resisted for decades. The old Olympic model was broken.

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Speaker 1: Italy already knew Olympic glory, but also the regret. The

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six Games in Turin left behind massive

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Speaker 1: debt and underused venues. Some Olympic towns went into postgames decline.

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Speaker 1: So for twenty twenty six, Italy made a promise it

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Speaker 1: had to keep no white elephants, no abandoned stadiums. That

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Speaker 1: meant hard compromises, including saying no to flashy new buildings,

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Speaker 1: ex accepting smaller crowds, and letting some events feel almost ordinary.

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Speaker 1: And that's what made this bid so revolutionary. There's another

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Speaker 1: reason the twenty twenty six Winter Games matter. It seems

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Speaker 1: winter sports are running out of winter. Reliable snow is disappearing,

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Speaker 1: temperatures are rising, Artificial snow is expensive and controversial. Cortina

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Speaker 1: was chosen not just for nostalgia, but because it's one

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Speaker 1: of the last reliable alpine climates for winter competition. Here's

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Speaker 1: what worries those that love the Winter Games. These may

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Speaker 1: be the last Winter Olympics that look anything like the

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Speaker 1: old ones. The Milano Cortina Olympics aren't trying to be

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Speaker 1: remembered as the biggest, loudest, or most profitable games ever.

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Speaker 1: They're trying to answer one question, can the Olympics still

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Speaker 1: exist in a modern world. If twenty twenty six works financially, environmentally, politically,

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Speaker 1: it'll become a blueprint. If it fails, future bids may

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Speaker 1: simply stop. No protests, no drama, just quiet abandonment. The

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Speaker 1: Olympics were born in ancient Greece as a temporary gathering

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Speaker 1: three thousand years ago, no permanent stadiums, no legacy plans,

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Speaker 1: no billion dollar footprints. Nearly three thousand years later, the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six Winter Olympics might succeed by going back

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Speaker 1: to that exact idea. Show up, compete, leave quietly, and

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Speaker 1: in doing so, Milano Kotina might not just host the games,

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Speaker 1: it might save them. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele. Please leave a review and follow or subscribe

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Speaker 1: free to dm me if you have a story you'd

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Speaker 1: like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and

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Speaker 1: on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories

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Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group

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Speaker 1: and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our

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Speaker 1: writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

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Speaker 1: Feel free to reach out to me with comments and

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Speaker 1: even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and

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Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the

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Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't

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Speaker 1: know you needed to know.