CORTINA D`AMPEZZO: The town of Cortina d`Ampezzo, one of Italy`s most famous ski resorts, is gearing up to co-host the 2026 Winter Olympics, marking a return of the Games to one of its traditional European venues for the first time in two decades.

As skiers enjoy the nearby Dolomites slopes and tourists stroll in the centre of the Alpine town, builders are working flat out to have the sliding centre ready for a March deadline when athletes are scheduled to testitfor the first time.

Finishing the sliding centre, which will stage Olympic bob, skeleton and luge competitions, is one of the headaches facing local organisers who must also adapt to climate change that has meant natural snow is in short supply.

Cortina and Italy`s biggest northern city of Milan, more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) away, are the main hosts of the Feb 6-22 Games, with five other venues also being used before a closing ceremony in Verona.

Cortina Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi plays down any risk of losing the sliding events to Lake Placid in the US, a global hub for those sports, which has been surprisingly designated as a long-distance backup solution should things go wrong in Cortina.

`There are backups for everything but..., as of today, a Plan B for the bob races does not exist anymore because it has been made clear the sliding centre is being built here, said Lorenzi. `I am not worried... Technicians are telling us the centre is going to be ready.

The International Olympic Committee echoed Lorenzi`s remarks last week, reiterating that the track would be finished on time.

The IOC earlier suggested using existing venues in neighbouring Austria or Switzerland, but Italy`s northeastern Veneto region and the national government ultimately opted for a full rebuilding of Cortina`s Eugenio Monti track.

Named after an Italian bobsleigh racer who won two silver medals at the Winter Olympics held in Cortina in 1956, the revamped site has an estimated cost of 118 million euros ($123 million). That is part of a 3.4-billion-euro budget for the infrastructure linked to the Games.

Lorenzi is convinced that the choice to rebuild was right, arguing that Cortina has a tradition in bobsleigh and is home to one of Italy`s oldest bob clubs.

Critics argue that the revamped sliding venue risks being a white elephant given the limited number of elite competitors in sliding events and the high venue management costs.

`This centre has no future and we will be saddled with it,` said Marina Menardi, the leading activist of a local committee which campaigned againstthe project.

There is a worrying precedent. The sliding centre used when Italy hosted the Games in 2006 in the northwestern Turin region was abandoned a few years after the Olympics and is now expected to be dismantled.-Reuters