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PREDAZZO, June 5, 2025 - Pietro De Godenz, president of the Nordic Ski Val di Fiemme Committee, has expressed confidence that the ongoing construction work at the ski jumping stadium in Predazzo will be completed in time for the FIS Nordic Summer Festival scheduled to take place from 18 to 21 September.
He said this to around 60 sports journalists who visited the facilities on June 4, as part of the activities of the Sports Media Austria Congress. The Fiemme mayors of Predazzo and Tesero, Paolo Boninsegna and Massimiliano Deflorian, respectively, also shared their optimism with the journalists.
VAL DI FIEMME LEGENDS Local Olympians Franco Nones, who won gold at Grenoble 1968, and Giorgio Vanzetta, who won four medals, including one gold, across five Olympic appearances, were also present and were interviewed by one of the historic voices of Italian sports news, Franco Bragagna. The sports legends expressed enthusiasm as their valley inches closer to "the great appointment with the Five Rings and Three Agitos".
BACK-UP PLAN The unique Summer Festival in September is the back-up test event for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games following the cancellation of the Ski Jumping World Cup, which was due to take place on 11 and 12 January 2025.
It was around this time last year that the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) officially announced this change to its ski jumping World Cup calendar for 2025, citing “considerable delays in the construction of the facility”.
At the time, FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile was optimistic that the “the facility should be ready in April or May 2025, we have been given a binding promise”.
That is obviously not the case since work is still ongoing at the venue in June 2025. The venue is now expected to be handed over in July. Despite being in a race against time, organisers ooze optimism. And so do the 4,500 inhabitants of Predazzo in Val di Fiemme, who can’t wait to welcome the Olympics, taking place from 6 to 22 February and the Paralympics, taking place from 6 to 15 March.
TOTAL RENOVATION The ski jumping stadium is undergoing a total makeover, including its two jumping hills (HS 109 and HS 143), judges tower, inclined lift and snowmaking system.
Val di Fiemme, which is one of the six clusters for the Winter Olympics next year, is also hosting the cross-country skiing events at the Tesero Lake cross-country ski centre. Here renovations are ongoing in the athletes underground area, FISI centre and on the tracks.
There will be 21 Olympic competitions and 38 Paralympic competitions in Val di Fiemme, accounting for 32 per cent of Milano Cortina medals.
SUMMER FESTIVAL The modernised Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium is expected to be inaugurated at the FIS Nordic Summer Festival in September, kicking off on the 18th with individual events for women and men on the HS109. The four-day festival, which will also include competitions in nordic combined and roller ski, will be a crucial step forward for Val di Fiemme along its #roadto2026 path to the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Just before the FIS Nordic Summer Festival, Val di Fiemme, which has the title “cradle of Nordic skiing”, will host the Nordicum Forum, an annual meeting of journalists, professionals and communication experts in the field of international Nordic skiing, which will take place from 16 to 19 September.
Chibuogwu Nnadiegbulam - AIPS Media Photo by SMA/Christian Hofer
