“Basically, you have almost the entire shape of the (track) built,” he said.

Located just outside of the mountain town of Cortina, the sliding center has been a huge concern for Milan-Cortina organizers, the International Olympic Committee and Italian politicians as delays in finding contractors to rebuild an abandoned track left potential builders with little time to complete the project safely. Concerned about the timeline and useless costs, IOC leaders urged Varnier to move the sliding sports to existing tracks in either Innsbruck, Austria or St. Moritz, Switzerland.

But doing so would make Milan-Cortina the first Winter Olympics to hold events to another country, something many Italian politicians protested. So in February, the company that oversees construction for the 2026 Games found a builder who promised to complete a track by next March, in time for the testing necessary for the Olympics.

Varnier said that in addition to laying out the basic framework of the concrete run, builders had completed a 50-meter segment to test a new refrigeration system that will not use ammonia. He said the tests were successful.

“We are confident,” he said. “Nonetheless we are we are still evaluating alternative plans for tracks that are not in Italy. Of course, that will be a big defeat for the country if they decided to go (and build the track) and then at the next spring, we have to decide to go somewhere else.”

Varnier is in Paris to present an update of the Milan-Cortina Games to IOC members this week.

“Of course, for us at this point, it will be much better being in Cortina because we are now building the village that includes space for all these athletes,” he said. “In the end, it will be so much better for the athletes themselves (to not be in another country). I mean, they will be part of the Olympics. They will be, you know, with their teammates from other sports.”