\n<\/p>\n
There was a break in the action during an intense curling match with a medal on the line, and the stadium announcer, an Italian film actor, took the mic.<\/p>\n
\u201cFans, you like this match, yes or no?\u201d the announcer, Daniele Coscarella, asked. \u201cYou ready to sing all together?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was time for \u201cEye of the Tiger,\u201d the 1982 crowd-pleaser by Survivor. And the crowd, relishing the thrill of the fight in this mixed doubles final, danced and belted out the tune.<\/p>\n
It was another memorable night in 70 years of them at the Olympic Stadium in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, Italy, which is co-hosting the Winter Games with Milan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Take any Olympics in any city, and the news about infrastructure is often bad. The new hockey rink in Milan was still under construction weeks before the Games began<\/a>. In Cortina, locals have grumbled<\/a> about nearly everything: the new bobsled track, the new cable car to whisk people up the Dolomites for skiing events, the rafts of netting and roadblocks all over town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the curling stadium seems to have escaped much of the grousing. Like the sport played there, it is quirky and odd, but also beloved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf you ask me, it has a soul,\u201d Mr. Coscarella said in an interview after the big match. \u201cOn evenings like this, when a sport like curling fills every seat, it means our goal has been achieved. It\u2019s a success for Cortina.\u201d<\/p>\n Technically, it is an arena \u2014 an enclosed facility used for a variety of purposes. But everybody in town calls it the \u201cstadio,\u201d<\/em> or stadium, because of how it began.<\/p>\n It opened in 1956 as a U-shaped, open-air ice rink clad in wood, a good fit in a picturesque mountain town like Cortina. When Cortina hosted that year\u2019s Winter Olympics, the venue held hockey matches.<\/p>\n John Mayasich, 92, played on the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team that won silver in those Games, and on the team that won gold in Squaw Valley, Calif., four years later. In a telephone interview from his home in Minnesota, he recalled competing on the ice at night under floodlights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPlaying outdoors was great. I grew up playing outdoors,\u201d he said. \u201cWe beat Canada, and back then that was a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He remembers that game well because, he made sure to note, he scored three goals.<\/p>\n A quarter-century later, James Bond arrived. Well, Roger Moore did, anyway, playing the British spy in \u201cFor Your Eyes Only.\u201d In the 1981 film, 007 is hit on at the rink by a young American figure skater before being targeted by assassins on a nearby biathlon course.<\/p>\n There was drama of another sort about a decade later, when officials proposed capping the stadium with a roof to make it more functional year-round. Some locals found the idea sacrilegious. Architects found a middle ground by keeping the wood as well as the feeling of openness to the elements by enclosing the U shape with a glass wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For the 2026 Olympics, Simico, the Italian state-owned company that oversees public infrastructure projects, expanded the locker rooms, installed ramps and an elevator, added lighting and video screens and created a heating and cooling system to keep the firmness of the curling ice just right. Body heat from a stadium full of fans \u2014 it seats 3,500 \u2014 has an effect on the ice, said Gianluca Lorenzi, a former curling coach who is Cortina\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n In an interview in his wood-paneled office a 15-minute walk from the stadium, Mr. Lorenzi said that the facility\u2019s everyday use is crucial to the town, drawing people of all ages for curling, hockey and ice skating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe technology is modern, but the structure is older,\u201d he said. \u201cWe gave it a new life.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not perfect. Fans say the sightlines from some seats are not great. Those arriving for the Olympics are greeted by a ring of security barriers, marring views of the structure.<\/p>\n But there is something about the stadium that tickles people.<\/p>\n Linda Christensen, a champion curler on the senior U.S. circuit, said she has been to at least 150 curling stadiums worldwide and pronounced this one \u201cgorgeous.\u201d She was in Cortina to cheer on her daughter, Cory Thiesse, in mixed doubles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe wood,\u201d she marveled, adding: \u201cI think old is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Naysayers might dismiss curling as shuffleboard on ice, but inside the stadium the atmosphere turns downright raucous. Fans stomp on the stands\u2019 metal grates, creating the deafening noise often heard at more traditional sporting events.<\/p>\n \u201cFinish it!\u201d one fan yelled at the American duo during the mixed doubles final<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n (They did not, losing to Sweden<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Things would get even more heated in later matches, with Canadian and British teams accused of foul play: touching the curling stone after releasing it. On Friday, after Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Marc Kennedy of Canada of cheating, the latter screamed expletives at him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Though there was no such spiciness at the mixed doubles final, there was plenty of loud excitement. Fans had their countries\u2019 flags painted on their cheeks and wrapped around themselves as capes. A D.J. played \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d and \u201cI Will Survive.\u201d A group of Estonians dressed as Super Mario took up part of a row.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the stands was Marco Gregori, 13, who, like nearly all kids growing up in Cortina, had been to the stadium many times. He said he curls with his school there, had seen a World Cup curling match there and had taken a photo there with Stefania Constantini<\/a>, Cortina\u2019s curling sensation, who took bronze in mixed doubles this year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On this night, he had one quest: to spot Snoop Dogg, the rapper and NBC commentator who had attended earlier curling matches. Alas, Snoop wasn\u2019t in the house that evening.<\/p>\n \u201cI like curling,\u201d Marco said. \u201cBut hockey is better.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Coscarella, the actor and announcer, is a die-hard curling fan who said he makes the pilgrimage to the ice palace from his home in Rome at least once a year. Now, he said, people from around the world are getting to appreciate it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stadium,\u201d he said, \u201cis the anchor of these Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason Horowitz contributed reporting from Cortina, and Josephine de La Bruy\u00e8re contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n