Italy is one step closer to hosting the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2028 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Thursday that it had scheduled a ballot to elect the Dolomiti Valtellina bid at an Extraordinary Session to be held January 30, 2025 at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The IOC’s Executive Board met Tuesday for a remote meeting and approved the bid for election after almost three months of Targeted Dialogue where Dolomiti Valtellina was singled out as the preferred candidate. With the Executive Board’s approval of the due diligence, the Italian project is certain to be elected when the general membership votes in January. Immediately before the Session, the IOC’s 143rd, seven candidates vying to replace Thomas Bach as the new IOC president will have have the opportunity to present their campaigns to the membership.
The presidential candidates will present in private while the Dolomiti Valtellina vote will be open according to the Olympic Charter, with the IOC typically livestreaming the proceedings on social media.
Italy is already organizing the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and will use some of that legacy to support the junior event two years later.
When named preferred host in July, Future Host Commission chair Karl Stoss said “the vision for Dolomiti Valtellina 2028 is to pass the baton to, and empower, a new generation of athletes and leaders.
“The masterplan is based 100 per cent on existing venues in three clusters, in Valtellina, Val di Fiemme and Cortina. Out of ten competition venues, six will have been used by Milano Cortina.”
Plans include the use of a new sliding track being built in Cortina d’Ampezzo for Milan-Cortina, but a delay in starting construction of that facility means it may not be available for the 2026 Olympics and the track could instead debut at Dolomiti Valtellina.
The current bid process launched in 2019 hides most of the decision making behind closed doors and with little disclosure from the IOC. Naming finalists to the ballot had traditionally been a high profile event but Tuesday’s decision only warranted a statement from the IOC two days later and without the requisite press conference.
Previously Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sofia in Bulgaria had expressed plans to bid for the YOG in 2028, but no other candidates were elevated to targeted dialogue by the IOC. In line with the new less-transparent bid process, details about other interested bidders were not disclosed.
The Winter YOG debuted in Innsbruck, Austria in 2012 and has since been staged four times with the latest edition hosted by Gangwon, South Korea earlier this year. The event includes athletes typically between the ages of 15 and 18.
