After an exhilerating fortnight of action in Milan Cortina, the Winter Olympics come to a close this weekend.
For Team GB, it’s been a very fruitful trip to Italy indeed. With three gold medals won by Matt Weston, Tabitha Stoecker, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale, Britain has significantly bettered its haul compared to its last visit to Italy, at the 2006 Games in Torino.
On that occasion, only Shelley Rudman mustered a medal return, winning silver in the skeleton after an inspired second run moved her from fourth position to the podium.
And while Rudman has left a lasting legacy for Team GB and skeleton, the same cannot be said for the Olympic site in Torino – with shocking new pictures showing the venue left in rack and ruin.
Despite the Italian government splashing out £5.2billion to host, the Cesana Pariol facilities are now derelict. They had been used for training and a handful of competitions after the Olympics, but have been abandoned since 2012.
As a result, there is significant overgrowth and the venue resembles a ghost town. The bobsleigh track has fallen to bits while graffiti covers large parts of the facility, with the Alps in view in the background.
The site of the 2006 Winter Olympics is in a dilapidated state despite £5.2bn funding
The Italian region hosted the sporting bonanza 20 years ago, but the facilities are abandoned
Urban explorers revealed the sorry state the site has been left in since hosting the Games
The abandoned site was recently visited by urban explorers called Broken Window Theory, who published a video on YouTube showing the venue’s sorry state.
‘Right now Italy is hosting the world again for the 2026 Winter Olympics, and while these games want to build something that lasts, we went looking for what the legacy can really mean once the athletes are gone and the cameras have moved on,’ the channel’s presenter said. ‘Because last time some of Italy’s Olympic venues were simply abandoned.
‘When the new venues rise, the old ones remain as scars on the landscape, too expensive to maintain and too costly to erase.’
The team show the state of an ice track in Cesane Torinese, which has been abandoned for 15 years. Olympic flags are still in place, as are cameras, close to a cabinet where the Olympic torch sat.
‘For two weeks back in 2006, the world’s best athletes rocketed down this 1.4km long course,’ he adds.
‘Twenty years later the site sits dormant, winding down the southern Alps like a scar through the forest. It was built for 7,000 spectators, but for years now it’s been empty.’
The explorers then visit a ski jump facility in Pragelato, which is plagued by weeds, vandalism and graffiti.
‘This site was meant to live on as a national training hub, created to shape the next generation of Italian ski jumpers,’ the presenter states.
‘But, with space for up to 9,000 fans to watch the spectacle, it was built for a future that never came.
Weeds spurt from the runways and grafitti covers old advertising hoardings
However, the venues used for Milan Cortina are expected to be reused long-term
‘With the Winter games back in Italy, the promises of a legacy have returned again. But after seeing what gets left behind, that word can sometimes become an excuse for venues too specialised to reuse and too expensive to keep alive.
‘And while the event can create real long-term benefits for local communities, what we witnessed today isn’t sustainability – it’s a bill that lasts for decades. And if nothing changes, ‘legacy’ can just become the polite name for the mess left behind when the lights go out.’
Olympics organisers say 85 per cent of Milan Cortina venues are pre-existing, or have been temporarily constructed for the two-week bonanza, set to be dismantled once the Games conclude.
Meanwhile, the Olympic Village will be converted into student accommodation in Milan, while there will be long-term benefits to transport and infrastructure in northern Italy thanks to the event.
