Cortina 1956 - Cold War, Dolce Vita and Olympic Dreams

December 8, 2025 ~ 5:30 PM

The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington invites you to the presentation of “Cortina 1956 - Cold War, Dolce Vita and Olympic Dreams”, a book written by Andrea Goldstein.

Join the conversation with the author and Dr. Lisa Delpy Neirotti as they illustrate the history behind the first publicly broadcasted Winter Olympic Games, held in Cortina after World War II, during Italy’s economic boom. Discover this transcendental experience that touched the worlds of sports, economics, politics, and social life and is an extraordinary precursor of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, taking place 70 years later.

LOCATION
📍 Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008

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ABOUT ANDREA GOLDSTEIN
Andrea Goldstein has a three-decade career in global governance, including at the OECD Economics Department in Paris, UNESCAP in Seoul and the World Bank in Washington. He also worked at Nomisma in Bologna and the Italian Securities and Exchange Commission in Rome. In addition to 14 OECD Economic and Investment Reviews, Andrea has authored more than 10 books and 30 academic articles on emerging economies, international investment, and the political economy of global sports. Andrea has also published extensively in newspapers such as the Financial Times, Le Monde, South China Morning Post, China Daily and Il Sole-24 Ore. He was educated at Bocconi and Columbia, has taught at the Catholic University in Milan and Sciences-Po in Paris, and is Past President of the Bocconi Alumni Community in Paris.
 

ABOUT LISA DELPY NEIROTTI 
Lisa Delpy Neirotti is the director of the MS in Sport Management Program and an associate professor of Sport Management at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). She has been a professor of sport, event, and tourism management at the George Washington University (GW) for more than 30 years. Dr. Delpy Neirotti has established a strong academic program at both the undergraduate and graduate level and has also helped develop the Sport Philanthropy Certificate, which serves to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of non-profit organizations using sport for social good. She also directs the GW Green Sports Scorecard to help increase the sustainability of sport facilities, organizations and events, and serves on the faculty of the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Master’s in Management of Sports Organizations (MEMOS).

BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK

Tenley Albright – who had started skating as a child to recover from polio and won the gold medal despite a serious injury just days before the competition – and Prince Bertil of Sweden – who made sure slope salters and sled drivers were invited to his gala reception.
Toni Sailer – who entered history by winning all the Alpine ski races by monstrous margins – and Sophia Loren – who arrived with the few things necessary for a couple of days crammed into seven fiery red trunks.
Eugenio Monti – who on his home bobsleigh track collected the first laurels of a career that ended 12 years later, at the age of 40, with two Olympic gold medals – and Lester Rodney – who in the middle of the Cold War covered the Soviet triumphs for the daily paper of the American Communist Party.
 
These are but some of the protagonists of the first Olympics organized in Italy, in the midst of an economic boom, just 11 years after the end of the Second World War. But they were also the first to be broadcast live on television, the first in which a woman read the athletes' oath, the first in which the two Germanys competed under the same flag, the first with a strong business involvement. The story of Cortina 1956 ranges from sports to economics, from politics to social life, in an ideal journey that leads from those unforgettable Games to Milan Cortina 2026. Milan Cortina 2026..

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Host or Publisher Italian Cultural Institute in Washington