Winter Olympics site guard dies during overnight shift in freezing temperatures

A construction site guard has died during a freezing overnight shift near a 2026 Winter Olympic venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo, authorities confirmed on Saturday.

The 55-year-old worker's death, which occurred on Thursday night at a site adjacent to Cortina’s ice arena, has prompted Italy’s Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini to demand a full investigation into the circumstances.

Italian media reported that temperatures plummeted to minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 degrees Fahrenheit) during the shift.

Organisers for Milan Cortina stated that the worker had a heart attack.

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“The information we have is that it was a death by natural cause, it was a heart attack. And we are investigating,” Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, told reporters at a test event at the new hockey arena in Milan.

“All the documentation that we have was in order. And we are waiting for the investigation to understand what the specific cause was. At the moment, the information we have from the emergency services is it was a death caused by natural causes ... while he was on site,” Varnier said.

Cortina d’Ampezzo map:

In the last week heavy snowfall, high winds and icy roads have made travel difficult in parts of Europe.

In Germany, train passengers were still experiencing long delays and cancellations on Sunday after rail operator Deutsche Bahn shut down all services in the north of the country on Friday due to strong snowfall.

In the Baltic countries of Estonia and Lithuania, drivers were asked to postpone all non-essential travel because of expected blizzards, while neighbouring Latvia issued a snow alert for the west of the country.

The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics are scheduled for Feb. 6-22.

The construction site was not one overseen by Simico, the governmental company responsible for Olympic infrastructure, the company said in a statement expressing its condolences.

Cortina city officials said they were “deeply saddened and troubled by the death.’’

Cortina will host curling, sliding and women’s Alpine skiing.