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Athletes to stay in pop-up cabins in the woods at Winter Olympics / Photo: © AFP
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Athletes to stay in pop-up cabins in the woods at Winter Olympics
Hundreds of athletes at Italy's Winter Games in February will stay in mobile homes as part of a high-altitude Olympic Village offering mid-winter luxury camping at 1,300 metres (4,240 feet).
The 377 cabins have been installed in the grounds of the old airport at Cortina d'Ampezzo, on the edge of a forest and a ten-minute drive to the centre of town.
A spokeswoman for delivery company SiMiCo told AFP on Monday the village was designed "to be installed and then dismantled without leaving a trace".
The 38-million-euro ($44.7 million) project will accommodate 1,400 athletes, coaches, support staff and delegates to the February 6-22 Games, and is in addition to the Olympic Village built in Milan.
Located at the foot of the Dolomite mountains, the 18-square-metre (194 sq ft) cabins are designed for two people, each boasting two bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.
Despite the snow on the ground outside, temperatures inside will reach a balmy 23 degrees Celsius (73.4 Fahrenheit). But the athletes will have to brave the cold to reach the restaurant, lounge, gym and laundry, which are a ten-minute walk away, or to take the shuttles to the competition sites.
For now, the cabins are only partially furnished, according to an AFP photographer who visited the site on December 11.
"We've done our job, it's now up to the Milan-Cortina organising community to provide furnishings and equip the common spaces," the SiMiCo spokeswoman said.
The Games in 2026 are spread out across a wide area of northern Italy, and there is another Olympic Village, housing 1,700 people, in the city of Milan.
The cabins have the advantage of being close to the chic resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, which will host the women's alpine skiing events.
The resort, the site of the 1956 Winter Olympics, is also home to the curling, the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton competitions.
However, skiing stars such as Americans Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, and Italians Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone, will not be staying in the Olympic Village.
Instead, they will stay in one of Cortina d'Ampezzo's many upscale hotels, their respective federations told AFP.
Many of the cabins are designed to be accessible, and will be reused by athletes in the Paralympic Games from March 6 to 15.
After that, the mobile homes "will be put back on the market", said the SiMiCo spokeswoman.
E. da Cruz--JDB
