An official with the International Olympic Committee acknowledged Wednesday that organizers are behind schedule on installing the ice at the main arena for the upcoming Milan Cortina Games, while another insisted the rink dimensions are “exactly what it should be.”
Christophe Dubi, the Olympic Games executive director, told reporters that ice will start being produced at Santagiulia Arena “toward the end of the year.” An IOC spokesperson had previously told The Athletic the rink would be completed in mid-December.
Though Dubi said the ice-making equipment is still being installed at a facility due to host 33 games between the men’s and women’s tournaments, he expressed optimism about the viability of the event based on a test conducted at the secondary Milan Rho Arena this week that he deemed “successful.” Rho’s rink has the same dimensions as Santagiulia’s.
“It bodes extremely well for what is coming,” Dubi said.
The status of the facilities in Milan has been the cause of significant concern for the NHL and NHL Players’ Association ahead of their first Olympic tournament in 12 years. That included news last week that they’ll be playing on ice surfaces that don’t match the typical NHL specifications.
It’s too far along in the process to change those dimensions.
The International Ice Hockey Federation confirmed Monday that the rink will be 196.85 feet by 85.3 feet, more than 3 feet shorter than the NHL’s standard layout of 200 feet by 85 feet and also substantially narrower than the international standard of 196.85 feet by 98.4 feet.
The parties had agreed on using NHL-sized ice in their Olympic agreement, signed last summer. Asked this week why there was a discrepancy, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the IIHF “had a different interpretation of what NHL meant than maybe we would have.”
Pierre Ducrey, the IOC’s sports director, said Wednesday that “everybody’s now aligned.”
“The ice rink measurements is exactly what it should be,” he said. “We can compete at the highest level on this ice rink. … We are now very clear regarding the measurements of the ice rink.
“We can move forward.”
The next big step is completing construction at Santagiulia Arena in time for a test event scheduled for Jan. 9 to 11. Any issues that arise there will need to be resolved by Feb. 5, when the puck drops on the women’s Olympic tournament.
“We’re still having a test event that will replicate the conditions of the Games, which is three matches per day, so that we really put the ice under the right level of tests,” Ducrey said. “It’s just been delayed a couple of weeks so that we can have all of the circumstances to test the venue. But also to have spectators in the venue so that we can really replicate as close as possible the circumstances we would have during the Games.”
