Winter sports, post-Olympics effect on sporting activity expected

The practice of winter sports involves more than two million people in Italy, and remains linked to the geography of mountain territories. According to Istat data, in 2024 about 11.3% of sportsmen and sportswomen practised winter, ice or mountain disciplines, equal to about two million 428 thousand people. This is an increase compared to 2006 and 2015, when there were 1.9 and 1.8 million practitioners respectively. The increase - Istat reports - is mainly driven by some growing disciplines such as trekking, practised in 2024 by 4% of sportspeople (they were 1.6% in 2015).

But if trekking does not require special facilities, the situation is quite different for disciplines such as downhill skiing or ice skating. The availability of infrastructure and ski resorts directly affects the territorial distribution of the practice. This is confirmed by the sportsmanship index for winter sports drawn up by Pts, which takes into account indicators such as the number of clubs, club results and the number of members, as well as the results achieved by the individual athlete.

The Alpine provinces occupy the top positions in the national rankings: at the top are Bolzano, Trento and Aosta, a stable podium position compared to 2024, followed by Sondrio and Belluno, which instead swap places. Rounding out the top 10 are Bergamo, Udine, Vicenza, Lecco and Brescia.

The Apennines appear just afterwards, with L'Aquila rising three places from last year, and peeping out again in 18th position with Parma, which gains seven places in 2025. As a matter of fact, the top 20 provinces are divided between Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy and Piedmont, with the incursion of a few places from Veneto and Friuli.

Overall, the top of the ranking is dominated by the regions involved in the Winter Olympics 2026. In this sense, the Games are likely to help consolidate the ranking. "As Pts Sport we believe that in the next Sportsmanship Index the Winter Olympics effect will be particularly significant. Some provinces will remain at the top of the ranking, others will return,' explained Alberto Miglietta, executive vice president of Pts.