Guard at Winter Olympics Construction Site Dies In Sub-Freezing Temperatures During Overnight Shift

A security guard at the 2026 Winter Olympics Games has died, authorities confirmed on Saturday, January 10.

According to a CBS report, the guard was working the overnight shift at an Olympic venue construction site in Cortina, Italy, when he died in the frigid weather.

Milan Cortina organizers said the official cause of death was a heart attack.

“The information we have is that it was a death by natural cause, it was a heart attack. And we are investigating,” Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, told reporters at a test event at the new hockey arena in Milan.

She continued: “All the documentation that we have was in order. And we are waiting for the investigation to understand what the specific cause was. At the moment, the information we have from the emergency services is that it was a death caused by natural causes … while he was on site.”

Italian media reported that the unnamed 55-year-old died on Thursday, January 8, while on duty outside of the ice arena. Temperatures reportedly dropped to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit overnight.

Italy’s infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini, is reportedly calling for a full investigation into the circumstances of the worker’s untimely death.

The 2026 Winter Olympics are scheduled to start with the opening ceremony on Friday, February 6, and run until Thursday, February 22.

Cortina city officials said they were “deeply saddened and troubled by the death.”

The Olympic ice arena has been in the middle of controversy since news broke in November that construction on the 16,000-seat Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, which is set to host hockey at the Olympics, was behind schedule, raising doubt over whether it will be ready when the 2026 games kick off in February.

Chief officer for the Winter Games Andrea Francisi told the Associated Press that “there is no plan B” if the arena is not ready, but that he feels confident that it will be.

“So necessarily we have to be able to organize the competition in an impeccable manner at Santagiulia,” he said in a story published November 29.

The arena is scheduled to host its first Olympic contest — a women’s preliminary round matchup — on Thursday, February 5, the day before the Opening Ceremony.

On Friday, January 9, the arena hosted its first test event, which was delayed during the first period after a hole developed in front of one of the goals, according to The Athletic.

Despite the game time complication, Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations told the outlet he is “excited about it” while acknowledging the challenges.

“The games are going to be great,” Salmond said. “Like every Olympics, there’s challenges with what happens outside of the game, but we’re Canadian. People grew up in small towns and small rinks, outdoor rinks. We can adapt to all of those things. The most important thing is that we can play in a rink, the families can come and watch it and people around the world are going to be able to watch it.”