OLYMPICS: Alpine skiing-'No Olympic spirit' in Bormio, Odermatt says of spread out Games after training run

BORMIO, Italy – The world's top alpine skiers have arrived in Bormio, Italy, for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, but many say the usual Olympic excitement is missing this year.

"There's no Olympic spirit in Bormio at all, I think," said Marco Odermatt, the world’s top-ranked skier across three disciplines, after the men’s first downhill training run on Wednesday.

Several athletes shared his view, describing an underwhelming atmosphere in the small mountain town. Bormio will host its first official race on Saturday, but with events spread across Milan, Cortina, Livigno, and Bormio, there will also be Olympic days with no competitions at all. The town is set to host only men’s alpine ski events, followed by ski mountaineering starting February 19.

Traveling between Bormio and Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the women’s alpine ski events are taking place, takes more than five hours by car and even longer by train, a sharp contrast to previous Olympics where men’s and women’s events happened on the same slopes.

Italy’s Dominik Paris acknowledged the difference. "It's not a real Olympic atmosphere, for sure," he said. But he added, "For us, it's good because we have a really good race, a tough race."

Paris, 36, is considered the "King of Bormio," having become the first man in 2021 to win the same downhill six times. He has competed in four Winter Olympics.

Olympic newcomer Giovanni Franzoni, competing on home turf, said the setup feels unusual. "It's strange because I can see nobody on the slopes—they are closed just for us—and we are not in the Olympic Village, but in a hotel," the 24-year-old said.

Franzoni added that the quieter environment might actually help him. "Maybe it's better this way because I can stay more calm and don't have too much pressure from the Olympic spirit," he said.

-Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Martyn Herman in Bormio/Reuters