Dirty but vibrant – Olympic ice hockey arena opens after race against time

Beset by delays, concerns and last-minute building works, the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena finally opened its doors to the Olympics on Thursday.

And while, as the International Olympic Committee admitted, it was not completely ready for its opening game, the arena was in a much better state than it had been when BBC Sport visited five days prior.

The 11,800-capacity stadium was nearly full for the Group B match between Italy and Olympic debutants France, won 4-1 by the host nation.

On the Saturday before the fixture, we found a frantic construction site, with building materials and dust inside and outside the stadium.

Rubbish littered the floor, lifts and toilets were covered in plastic wraps and many areas of the arena, including hospitality boxes as well as food and drink stalls, were unfinished.

Christophe Dubi, the International Olympic Committee’s executive director for the Olympic Games, admitted on Sunday: “Do we have every single space in that venue finished? No. And is everything in that venue needed [for the matches to take place]? No.”

Returning on the morning of the first game – about three hours before face-off – we found the piles of rubble and building materials gone from the concourses inside and out.

Not all the amenities were quite ready, with merchandise stalls being built and posters still to be put up. This is just over three hours before the opening match.

Inside the arena, one side of the stadium was simply a big black wall. This houses temporary stands on top of what will eventually be a stage for concerts, and was supposed to feature large boards with Olympic branding.

In the stands, it was very dusty and dirty. The arena had the feel of a new build, finished in a hurry without much spit and polish.

But many of the areas which appeared most unfinished on Saturday – toilets, lifts, executive boxes and concession stands – were ready for business.

And when the game began there was no faulting the atmosphere, with only a few empty seats visible around the arena – impressive for a Thursday afternoon – while electric organ music, traditional in sports popular in North America, was played live.

Overall, it was not perfect – but it was ready to host Olympic ice hockey, which at points over the past few months had been far from certain.

Ground was meant to be broken in 2022, but legal wrangling delayed the start of construction by a year.

The rink in Milan, approved by the International Ice Hockey Federation, is shorter than the minimum requirement in the National Hockey League (NHL), leading to suggestions there could be an increase in high-speed collisions. The quality of the ice has also been questioned.

The first teams on the ice were two rank outsiders in the women’s competition.

Italy’s women have only played at one Olympics before, also as hosts in 2006 – when they lost all three games by an aggregate score of 32-1.

The French women meanwhile only qualified as replacements for Russia after they were banned from the Games. So, one of these sides would earn their first ever Olympic win.

Despite early Italian domination, it was a French woman who scored the first Olympic goal at Santagiulia, Gabrielle de Serres deflecting the puck home to write herself into the history books.

But to the joy of everyone in the stands – bar a noisy pocket in the top tier singing ‘Vive La France’ – Italy equalised almost immediately with Kayla Tutino forcing in from close range.

And in the second period, with their 32nd shot of the game, Italy led when Rebecca Roccella fired a rebound into the roof of the net.