By Karolos Grohmann
MILAN, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Milano-Cortina Olympics will live up to their billing as the greatest winter sports show on earth despite last-minute efforts to get venues, including the much-delayed Santagiulia ice hockey stadium, ready for next week's start, the IOC said on Sunday.
Organisers are rushing to complete venues in Milan and the mountain clusters. On Saturday Reuters reported that a cable car in Cortina designed to carry spectators to women's alpine skiing events, would
not be ready for the Games' February 6 start.
But Olympic officials are confident venues will be ready for the first Winter Games in the European Alps in 20 years.
"The preparation is going extremely well," International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told a press conference. "The team is working very hard. All stakeholders are working really well. We are exactly where we need to be."
The 2026 Olympics are more spread out than past winter editions, with mountain clusters in Cortina, Bormio, Livigno and Val di Fiemme, all several hours away from the sports venues in Milan, and with transportation, especially in the mountains, one of the organisers' biggest challenges.
"Yes, it is a little more spread out. The organising committee has made the best possible opportunities available to all stakeholders to be as successful as they would in any other Games. We have to see how the Games will unfold," said Coventry, who is overseeing her first Olympics as president after being elected to the post last year.
Apart from the mountain venues, organisers are scrambling to get the Santagiulia stadium ready in time for the competition, with the IOC's Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi sure everything will be in place for when the puck hits the ice.
A delayed start and slow progress in the construction of the arena, in the south-east of Milan, became one of the main headaches in the run-up to the Olympics.
The arena, which will have a capacity of 15,300, underwent testing only as recently as January, with 4,000 fans per match during the Final Four event of the Italy's Championship and the 2025/2026 Italian Cup.
The Games will also see the return of NHL players to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
"Do we have every single space in that venue finished? No," said Dubi. "Is it absolutely needed for the Games? No. Anything that is public-facing, anything that is media or athletes, will be absolutely top. Do we still have work? Yes."
"Still work ongoing, frantic as you say, to make it a really great venue," he added.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
