MIL AN: Thomas Bach said Italy is ready to host next year`s Winter Olympics as the one-year countdown to the sprawling MilanCortina Games beganataneventonThursday.

International Olympic Committee chief Bach asked representatives from Italy and five other national committees to join him on stage at Milan`s Strehler Theatre to receive invitations to the 2026 Olympics, which will be his last as arguably the most powerful person in global sport.

`Italy is ready to write the next chapter of its great Olympic history,` said Bach during the ceremony for the 25th Winter Olympics.

Bach later insisted that the much-contested bobsleigh track for the Games in Cortina d`Ampezzo, on which construction work only began a year ago, will be completed in time for an approval deadline next month. Asked if all venues would be ready on schedule, Bach simply said `yes`, and was equally monosyllabic on whether there were any chance the sliding events could be moved to the back-up venue of Lake Placid, some 6,000 kilometres (3,728 miles) away in the USA.

`No,` said 71-year-old Bach, who also praised the head of Italy`s hard-right government Giorgia Meloni for her `great leadership` after meeting with her in Rome on Wednesday.

Bach will step down as IOC chief in June after 12 years in charge, with a gaggle of contenders vying to replace the German.-AFP