Riding a wave of widespread Italian enthusiasm to be an Olympic host, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo won the vote Monday to stage the 2026 Winter Games.
International Olympic Committee members voted 47-34 for the long-favored Milan-Cortina bid over Stockholm-Are from Sweden that also included a bobsled track in Latvia.
Milan-Cortina's jubilant delegation broke into chants of "Italia! Italia!" when the result was announced, giving the Alpine nation a second Winter Games in 20 years.
"I'm really emotional," Italian Olympic president Giovanni Malago said, close to tears at the winner's news conference. "It's a very important result, not only for me but the whole country."
Italy will get a third Winter Games, after Turin hosted in 2006 and Cortina staged in 1956.
Sweden has never hosted the Winter Games and was sent to an eighth bidding loss in the past 41 years. A lack of enthusiasm for the project in Sweden — rating 28% below the Italians in the IOC's own polls — was a decisive factor.
nhl
Stars trade Pitlick
The Dallas Stars traded center Tyler Pitlick, a former Centennial High School and MSU Mankato player, to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for right wing Ryan Hartman.
Pitlick, 27, who was a second-round draft choice by Edmonton in 2010, had eight goals and four assists in 47 games with the Stars in 2018-2019. In 2017-2018, his first season with the Stars after three seasons with Edmonton, he had 14 goals and 13 assists in 80 games.
