Olympics
A guard at an Olympic construction site in Milan, Italy, died during freezing temperatures during an overnight shift on Thursday. Temperatures fell to 10 degrees (-12ºC) that night, and Milan Cortina organizers said that the worker died of a heart attack. Pietro Zantonini, 55, a security guard who worked in Cortina d’Ampezzo near the ice rink construction site, also died on the night between January 7 and 8, according to L’Unione Sarda.
Zantonini is from Brindisi, a city in southern Italy, and would leave the security cabin every two hours to check his security perimeter. The night the temperature dropped below freezing, Zantononini called his colleagues to report that he was feeling ill. They called emergency services shortly before 2:00 a.m. When help arrived, they attempted to resuscitate him, but there was nothing more they could do. He had already succumbed to illness, according to L’Unione Sarda. “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.
His wife has filed a complaint with the Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, who primarily carry out domestic and foreign policing duties, and prosecutor Claudio Fabris ordered an autopsy. The family of Zantonini wants to “shed full light on the incident and ensure that no workplace death is treated as a private or unavoidable event,” through a statement with their lawyer, Francesco Dragone.
According to his family, Zantonini has “repeatedly expressed concerns and complaints about working conditions, long night shifts, and the lack of adequate protection.” The family expressed that these issues and working conditions at construction sites at major events like the 2026 Winter Olympics should be at the forefront of safety. The Belluno CGIL union stated that over the last few years, it has seen construction sites open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and carried out in all weather conditions. “All the documentation that we have was in order. And we are waiting for the investigation to understand what the specific cause was,” Varnier said. “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.”
The construction site was not one overseen by Simico, the governmental company responsible for Olympic infrastructure, the company said in a statement expressing its condolences. Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said he was deeply saddened by the death of the security guard and has requested detailed information on the incident.
“Workplace safety cannot be only an option,” Veneto President Alberto Stefani said, after three workers were killed in a week in his region. He called the wave of deaths since the new year “unacceptable.” The Winter Olympics are scheduled for February 6 through 22.
Change the click-bait title to “died of a heart attack”. This had nothing to do with the chilly temperature.