Photos by: Dino Colli,
Diego Gaspari, Antonio Colli, Stefano Zardini, Luigi Alverà, archivio G.I.S.
The Ice Skating Ring... as it was
The Olympic Ice Stadium of Cortina hosted the Official Opening Ceremony of 7th Winter Olympic Games and the Olympic torch shone here for the whole duration of the Games, till the last day, when the Closing Ceremony was held in this same place.
Ice-hockey and Figure-skating competitions were held on this ice-rink.
Technical Information
The construction works started in 1952 and the official opening ceremony was held on 26th October 1955.
Design: M.Ghedina, and Nelli and Uras, architects
Works Manager: Igino dalla Bernardina, engineer
Calculations for the concrete structures: A. Carré, engineer
Concrete structure panelled in wood (fir, larch, cembra pine – roof with copper coating)
Ice-rink: 4,320 sq.m of which 1,800 sq.m are artificially refrigerated.
"U" shaped stand-building facing south: 4 floors, 14 m. high
Seating-capacity: 7,000 spectators - 2,000 on the tier of seats and 5,000 in the stands – and the possibility to extend the capacity with extra infrastructures up to 12,000 spectators.
4 dressing rooms for Hockey teams – massages room – sauna – 19 single dressing rooms – a dressing room for the public- several stores and technical laboratories.
The Refrigerator Room, an example of highly advanced technology for that period is still perfectly efficient, it contains the compressors, the ammonia tanks, and the electric power station.
The refrigeration system makes use of anhydrous ammonia NH2 and provides the refrigeration of the rink by means of 50 km of cooling coils located few centimetres below the surface of the ice-rink.
Under the roof surbase 126 spots supply the illumination of the Stadium for a total power of about 3,000,000 Lumen.
Sports Data
The winners of the Olympic competitions
Ice-hockey: U.S.S.R
Women's figure-skating: Albright Tenley F. (USA)
Men's figure skating: Jenkins Hayes A. (USA)
Pairs' figure-skating: Schwarz E. – Oppelt K. (AUT)
