Zusammenfassung: This volume offers a novel study of the Milan-Cortina's Winter Olympics 2026, with a focus on the mountainous region of Valtellina. It brings an up-to-date analysis of the complex interactions between mega-events and remote areas, both in terms of potentials for regeneration and risks for further segregation. Remote areas are traditionally characterized by socio-economic and spatial disparities. On the one hand, they benefit from attractive features, such as environmental and landscape resources, food and wine production, and energy production. On the other, they are by definition fragile environments, disrupted by the contradictions of international tourism, climate change, limited infrastructures and services, rural abandonment, and demographic decline. This book offers credible solutions for the sustainable development of mountainous regions as a legacy of Winter Olympics. It is an essential resource for scholars, professionals, and policy-makers in the fields of urban planning and design, architecture design, geography, sociology, and economics. Andrea Arcidiacono (PhD) is Associate Professor at the Politecnico of Milano (DAStU), where he coordinates the BSc Program in Urban Planning, and is a board member of the PhD Program in Urban Planning, Design and Policy. He is Scientific Director of the Land Take Research Centre (CRCS) and, since 2016, Vice-President of the National Institute of Planning (INU). He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Urbanistica and authored over 150 scientific publications. Stefano Di Vita (PhD) is Researcher in Urban Planning at the Politecnico di Milano (DAStU). His research focuses on spatial dynamics of economic transition (including temporary events and digital innovation), planning processes, tools, and mechanisms of urban change (from big projects to micro-scale regeneration), and spatial phenomena, strategies, and actions targeted to international repositioning and regional rescaling of cities. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Territorio and authored over 70 scientific publications

This volume offers a novel study of the Milan-Cortina's Winter Olympics 2026, with a focus on the mountainous region of Valtellina. It brings an up-to-date analysis of the complex interactions between mega-events and remote areas, both in terms of potentials for regeneration and risks for further segregation. Remote areas are traditionally characterized by socio-economic and spatial disparities. On the one hand, they benefit from attractive features, such as environmental and landscape resources, food and wine production, and energy production. On the other, they are by definition fragile environments, disrupted by the contradictions of international tourism, climate change, limited infrastructures and services, rural abandonment, and demographic decline. This book offers credible solutions for the sustainable development of mountainous regions as a legacy of Winter Olympics. It is an essential resource for scholars, professionals, and policy-makers in the fields of urban planning and design, architecture design, geography, sociology, and economics.

Moving from the theoretical paradigm of sustainability applied to events, this chapter proposes the case of Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games as an example of an innovative sporting event capable of setting sustainability as the most important lever of the project. During the work, the choices in the field of sustainability made by the organising committee will be illustrated, a comparison between the future 2026 Winter Games and those of the past will be presented, and finally the case will be analysed in light of previous literature. The results show that sustainability has gained increasing importance over time, appearing in all the chapters of the Milan-Cortina 2026 bid document. Compared to the previous literature, this chapter fits into the trend of case studies of application of the Olympic Agenda 2020 and confirms how this new vision has changed the concept of the Olympic Games, also in terms of sustainability.

This study analyzes whether the Olympic Agenda plays a crucial role for the future of the Olympic Games. The authors, therefore, examined the official IOC documents and feasibility studies of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games (WOG) bidders and conducted qualitative interviews with experts in the field. The results reveal that the 2026 WOG hosts plan to reduce the budgets for the organization and the infrastructure costs in the host regions. As a consequence, the number and nature of the sites and venues as well as the distances between them will increase. This means that the future Olympic heritage may lay less in iconic buildings but rather focus on the attempt to fulfil the city's long-term strategies. The analyses extend the literature by: (1) analysing the Olympic Agenda in view of future Olympic Games, (2) comparing experiences from past Olympic Games with those of current bidders, (3) integrating expert knowledge thanks to qualitative interviews and, finally, (4) considering new heritage concepts.

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games are often seen as the most prestigious tourism events in the world. However, public support for such mega-events has decreased over the past decades. To counteract this negative trend, the International Olympic Committee launched the Olympic Agenda 2020 and later amendments. With Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) hosting the Olympic Winter Games in 2026, two independent tourist destinations will be required to collaborate and share resources in multi-contextual environments as they become members of a meta-organisation. Moreover, they will have to implement the requirements of the Olympic Agenda 2020. Building on meta-organisation theory and 35 semi-structured interviews, the findings of this study highlight the organisational challenges in times of increased awareness of sustainability and positive legacy expectations. The research makes recommendations for the further organisation of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in six areas of action that require the attention of professionals and the support of academics.

2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the winter sports week festival celebrated in Chamonix in 1924, which is now recognized as the first Olympic Winter Games. As a globally watched quadrennial mega-event, the Winter Olympics is unique from both summer sport festivals and other winter festivals, such as the Winter X Games. This book explores the impacts, issues, and legacies of the past century of the Olympic Winter Games. Grounded in sport history, the chapters in this volume draw on the disciplines of cultural history, diplomatic history, global history, environmental history, and media history to analyze the continued allure of the Winter Olympics, a century after its origin, and in light of the sustained and significant problems facing the Olympic movement. Host cities’ efforts to create positive and lasting legacies are analyzed to highlight the challenges and complexities that have plagued the Olympic movement throughout the last century. The Olympic Winter Games at 100 is essential reading for any researcher, advanced student or scholar with an interest in Olympic Studies, sports development, sport policy and history. The chapters in this book were published as two special issues in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

In late 1998 and the early months of 1999, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was an organization in crisis. Revelations of a slush fund employed by Salt Lake City officials to secure votes from a number of IOC members in support of the city’s bid for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games invited intense scrutiny of the organization by the international media. The IOC and its president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, staggered through the opening weeks of the scandal, but ultimately Samaranch and key actors such as IOC vice president Richard Pound, marketing director Michael Payne, and director-general François Carrard weathered the storm. They also safeguarded the IOC’s autonomy and subsequently spearheaded the push for reforms to the Olympic Charter, intended to better position the IOC for the twenty-first century. In Tarnished Rings, the authors delve into this fascinating story, exploring the genesis of the scandal and charting the IOC’s efforts to bring stability to its operations. Based on extensive research and unparalleled access to primary and source material, the authors offer a behind-the-scenes account of the politics surrounding the IOC and the bidding process. Wenn, Barney, and Martyn’s potent examination of this critical episode in Olympic history and of the presidency of Samaranch, who brought sweeping changes to the Olympic Movement in the 1980s and 1990s, offers valuable lessons for those interested in the IOC, the Olympic Movement, and the broader concepts of leadership and crisis management.