Testing begins at Cortina's controversial Olympic sliding track for bobsled, luge and skeleton

ROME (AP) — When Italian skeleton competitor Mattia Gaspari became the first athlete to test the controversial sliding track for next year's Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, he did so in a sort of tunnel under a temporary roof built of wooden beams and white plastic paper.

That's because the sliding center in Cortina d'Ampezzo is still under construction and the only part that is really finished is the track structure.

Still, getting to this point little more than a year after construction began is a big achievement for the Italian government, which rebuilt the century-old track despite calls from the International Olympic Committee to hold bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes at a venue in nearby Austria or Switzerland instead.

“It's really been quite an adventure,” Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said Tuesday.

“I want to thank the construction firm, which was the first one to believe in this, and the journalists who motivated us,” said Salvini, who is also the deputy premier, citing articles claiming that the project would never be done. “Well, here we are.”

Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller was the second athlete down the track on his luge before Simone Bertazzo and Eric Fantazzini made a two-man bobsled run.

Simico, the government agency in charge of the 118 million euro ($128 million) project, reported positive results for the test runs. But it will be officials from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, International Luge Federation and the IOC to determine whether to bestow preliminary certification — homologation is the technical word — for the track.

Preliminary approval would be a big step in avoiding a backup Plan B option that the IOC had demanded and which would require moving the three sliding sports all the way to Lake Placid, New York, if the track in Italy wasn’t finished in time. Lake Placid officials were hopeful that, if the sliding events were going to be awarded to the U.S., the official word would come by the end of March.

Construction on the Cortina track began in February last year. The pre-homologation plan calls for athletes to begin their initial runs from the junior start, well below the ramps from where they would begin to race for World Cup and Olympic competitions. Sliders would move up the track slowly throughout the coming days.

There are testing events at the Cortina track for all three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge — scheduled for throughout the fall. Those are important so that sliders can familiarize themselves with the track and feel safe there when competing at the Olympics. Safety has taken on more importance since the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training crash hours before the start of the opening ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Luge athletes are scheduled to have an international training period at the new track from Oct. 27 through Nov. 2, then return for a test event there in the final week of November. The bobsled and skeleton tours will hold their international training period from Nov. 7-16, followed by the season-opening World Cup races there from Nov. 17-23.

The 1.749-kilometer (1.09-mile) track features 16 curves with an estimated top speed of 145 kph (90 mph) with run times slated for 55-60 seconds.

Athletes from 12 nations are involved in the tests this week. It's about 60 athletes in all, about half of them being Italian sliders. Coaches representing at least 23 different sliding nations were also invited to view this week's events.

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

FILE - Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta, file)

FILE - Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta, file)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

HONG KONG (AP) — Four former Hong Kong lawmakers were freed from prison on Tuesday, having served more than four years for their conviction under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement.

Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were among 47 activists arrested in 2021 for their roles in an unofficial primary election. They were the first of the convicted activists to reunite with their families and friends following years of separation.

Only vehicles involved in the release operation were seen leaving the three prisons in the remote areas of the Asian financial hub under tight security. The curtains of the vehicles were down. Reporters who waited for hours outside the prisons where they were held were unable to see them in person around the facilities.

An Associated Press reporter saw Mo's husband, Philip Bowring, waiting for the activist to return home at their residence before being escorted by police out of the area where they live.

In a video posted by local online media HK01, Fan, when asked by a reporter about his feelings, thanked Hong Kongers and the media for their concern. He added he was going to reunite with his family.

The 2020 unofficial primary drew 610,000 voters, and its winners had been expected to advance to the official legislative election. Authorities postponed that, however, citing public health risks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the trial, prosecutors said the activists aimed to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and force the city’s leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately. The judges said in their verdict last year that the activists’ plans to effect change through the unofficial primary would have undermined the government’s authority and created a constitutional crisis.

Only two of the 47 original defendants were acquitted. The remaining activists received prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years on a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Mo, Tam, Kwok and Fan, who got the shortest terms, had their sentences reduced after pleading guilty.

Regardless of their term length, years of separation have pained the activists and their families. The case involved democracy advocates across the spectrum. They include legal scholar Benny Tai, who got a 10-year prison term, and former student leader Joshua Wong, who has to serve four years and eight months.

Fourteen of the convicted activists would appeal their cases. The government lawyers would also appeal the acquittal of one activist.

Critics said their convictions illustrated how authorities crushed dissent following massive anti-government protests in 2019, alongside media crackdowns and reduced public choice in elections. The drastic political changes reflect that the Western-style civil liberties Beijing promised to retain in the former British colony for 50 years when it returned to China in 1997 were shrinking, they said.

Beijing and Hong Kong governments insisted the national security law was necessary for the city’s stability. China defended the judicial decisions, despite criticism from foreign governments.

Vehicle carrying former legislator Claudia Mo out of Lo Wu Correctional Institution, a women's prison early Tuesday, April 29, 2025. The former legislator was imprisoned for taking part in a primary election for pro-democracy politicians in 2020. (AP Photo/Jonathan Lee)

The exterior of Stanley Prison, where former lawmakers Jeremy Tam and Kwok Ka-ki were reportedly released early on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, is pictured in Hong Kong.(AP Photo/Kanis Leung)

The exterior of Stanley Prison is seen after former pro-democracy lawmakers Jeremy Tam and Kwok Ka-ki were released in Hong Kong on Tuesday, April 29 2025. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)

Police officers stand guard outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Police officers stand guard outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Police officers stand guard outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Vehicles believed to be carrying former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, who was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law, leaves the Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Vehicles believed to be carrying former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, who was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law, leaves the Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Vehicles believed to be carrying former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, who was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law, leaves the Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Police officers stand guard outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Members of media wait outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker, Gary Fan, was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Vehicles believed to be carrying former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, who was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law, leaves the Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Police officers stand guard outside the Shek Pik Prison as former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

The exterior view of Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)