A 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater is to be made fully accessible to disabled people ahead of the Winter Paralympic Games in Milano-Cortina as organizers prioritize heritage with 100 days to go.
The transformation of the Arena di Verona, which will host the Paralympic opening ceremony, includes adding a lift and toilets to the structure, which is older than the Colosseum. Described as “a symbol of our Paralympic Games” by Andrea Vernier, chief executive of Milan-Cortina 2026, he acknowledged that the conversion has also been considered an act of “blasphemy” by some traditionalists.
“The decision to hold the opening ceremony at the Arena di Verona is not just an aesthetic decision, although, of course, we prefer to have such a display of beauty,” Vernier said. “But this was also an idea, to make accessible not just the arena but the entire route from the railway station to the venue.
“Now they’re going to build an elevator, which, for purists of classic monuments, is a blasphemy to build an elevator in a Roman amphitheatre. But now it will be there. And we think it’s part of things that change. It’s also a very strong message.”
Vernier said the renovation of the grounds, which is expected to cost €20m (£17.5m), would form a central plank of the Games’ legacy, along with the expansion of accessible public transport and funding for winter para-sports education and training. He hopes these actions will help facilitate the growth of winter para-sports in what he acknowledged is a “challenging” environment.
In another initiative, which will apply to both the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, Vernier pledged that the “crucial” process of artificial snow creation will be conducted without the use of chemicals. “We know that with climate change, snowfall becomes more important,” he said. “But the new system we have installed means we can use water without harming the local ecosystem and the new machinery to make ice only uses water. There are no chemicals added to any of our ice making techniques. So it is real ice, even if it is artificially made.”
The Winter Paralympics will see athletes from 50 nations compete in six para-events: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice hockey, snowboard and wheelchair curling. Vernier did not disclose the number of tickets sold for the games but acknowledged that work remains to be done.
“(Viewers’) focus is now on the Winter Olympic Games and that’s a little unfortunate because we would really love to see (ticket sales) moving in parallel,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is always the case and we were not able to interrupt this pattern. So we still need to speed up ticket sales but again we are very confident because we are in exactly the same position as our colleagues were in Paris, so this is normal.”
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Asked what he thought would mark the Games as a success, Vernier said that “in some ways it has already been a success because of the legacy we will leave, I will never stop underlining that”. He argued that the Games should be seen as another “small brick” in the development of the Paralympic movement.
“Winter sports are more challenging to develop and we know that,” he said. “We know the complex environment makes this more challenging. But we hope to play another small role in making this an even bigger and more comprehensive movement for everyone.”
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