I went skiing in the Italian Alps with Winter Olympics athletes — here's what I learned

Twenty years after it hosted the Games, the spirit of the Winter Olympics is still alive at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere, writes Maurice Brosnan

La Trattoria which serves wood-fired pizza at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere,

It is a surreal experience to see the ghosts of Winter Olympics past swirling all around you while the actual event takes place a couple of hours away. The venues, the athlete, and the sport are all around us, with no crowds or cameras.

I’m at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere in the heart of the Italian Alps, east of Milano Cortina where the 2026 Games took place. This paradise hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics too. Former Olympian Jamie Nicholls is here to lead our group around the slopes. It has all the infrastructure and spirit of that famed event without any of the frenzy.

Nicholls competed for Team GB at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics and is excellent company. The ease with which he is able to perform front somersaults while hurtling downhill is made all the more impressive by the fact that he is also carefully documenting it for his social media feeds.

A cosy room at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere,

Four hundred-odd kilometres of piste is his and our vast playground. Its sprawl is such that it would seem almost wasteful not to explore all of it. Thankfully, the resort has agreements with four separate restaurants in the mountains. It means from the moment we set off every morning, there is no need to organise a route around our base accommodation.

“Do we need our passports?” a group nearby ask of their guide. They are headed across the Alps and into France. This is an enormous world. Why not try to see as much of it as possible?

And yet, it is a contained one. Club Med Pragelato is down the valley from the Sestriere ski area. For our second day of skiing, we board a bus for a short 10-minute trip to another station. At the end of the day, all of the adventurers return to base.

It means you bump into Nicholls as he makes repeat trips to the dessert counter. It means your ski guide from the morning is the live entertainment in the evening at the Italian La Trattoria, one of three restaurants on site. It means the photographer on the peak is later playing the crocodile in Peter Pan that evening.

This all-inclusive resort is steeped in that 2006 Olympic history. Unlike several other Club Med locations with their hotel blocks, this place is its own quaint village. Our accommodation is a wooden chalet threaded through cobbled streets with a second-floor balcony that is just the perfect platform for a morning espresso.

The array of slopes in the clouds above is immense. It covers everything from a ‘magic carpet’ beginner slope, complete with a moving walkway rather than a gondola or chairlift, to actual Olympic runs. Much of this transport was originally built to help carry competitors to the main Olympic area. Our route back to the village square, where every day begins, can be taken two different ways: a cabin ride back or a long red slope with a steep finish. With a group of keen thrill-riders, there is only one choice.

Fresh powder viewed from the gondola

None of that, it should be said, is what makes the spot.

As soon as I arrive in Turin Airport and am whisked 90 minutes up the road, from spring streets to sunny snow, it is the people that make the trip. Our transfer driver is an enthusiastic local learning English through YouTube videos and his favourite Netflix shows, equipped with a fierce determination to make the most of a real-life lesson while channelling his inner Max Verstappen.

The purpose of travel comes into sharp focus when you are asked to write about it. Between the moment you depart and arrive, what is it I’m really here for? What we see or do, or eat or drink, is all secondary in one overarching experience. The primary point is how we feel.

It is easy to lose sight of that. The temptation to do so has been explored by poets and writers throughout history. Charles Baudelaire’s famed Le Voyage includes a sarcastic account of travellers failing to grasp the point.

We have seen the stars And waves, we have seen the sand too; And, despite crises and unforeseen disaster, We have often, as here, grown bored.

Our only crisis is the realisation that leaving all ski gear in the locker overnight will ensure it remains saturated the following morning, but the overall sentiment is recognisable. A holiday should be more than sights and sounds. The experience itself is the point. Our best trips are the ones that put us in a state of contentment. For Nicholls, the allure is the fact that ski gear, buffets, and passes are all readily available.

It is extremely difficult not to have a good time when it feels like everyone around you is. There is a contagion on these mountains; the current that charges them is the mood. Staff can literally recite the club motto, a quote from founder Gérard Blitz: “The purpose of life is to be happy. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now.”

The level of instruction provided on the slopes is remarkable. On our first morning, beginners, intermediates, and advanced skiers are split three ways. They then further divide them depending on where we fall within that level. Instructors must undergo rigorous training programmes to work at this standard and that is evident in their confidence and craft. Once our ability is established, they further refine our group to ensure the pace is right.

Thomas Maloney Westgaard of Team Ireland, right, competes in the Men's Cross-Country Skiing during the 2026 Winter Olympics Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

It is a sensational season at the Via Lattea region with heavy dumps of snow ever since December. One such storm descends on our second day.

Such a fall paves the way for pristine conditions in the days after but initially, the downpour can be wet and cold. It thins out our group to just two of us and a determined instructor. Her relentless enthusiasm, combined with the sparse crowd, turns tricky conditions into great fun. That sound I know from previous ski trips of carbon-fibre skis screeching on ice is absent for the week. Nothing but sleek edges slicing through fresh powder.

No matter how far we venture, the maps and signposts make it a navigable wonderland. There is something for everyone here, too.

What does it take to transform a welcome reception igloo in the morning into a thumping disco at night? Willing people who are here to have a good time. Every time I pass through the lobby, there seems to be another activity for children. The hypnotist is a particular wonder. Each evening has a different form of live entertainment, from music to artistic performances.

The resort offers ski lessons for children aged four and over. There are also four kids’ clubs from toddlers to teens. On the top floor of the hotel is Lo Spazio, with a daily buffet and non- alcoholic bar. It is fitted with a glorious games arcade with pinball machines and Pac-Man. To our slight disappointment, it is only open to eight- to 17-year-olds.

I can make the most of the numerous facilities, though. No matter how many times you do it, whether it is beginner or advanced, skiing is an exhausting business. It hits like a wave once I shed my gear and load it into the personal locker.

All of this is a fine way to justify falling asleep in the Payot spa. The point of the indoor pool, massage and body treatments is to recharge. A separate leisure centre lies nearby for those peculiar individuals not already exhausted by the mountains.

Our days are sustained by a lavish array of food choices. The main restaurant, Il Piemonte, has its own pasta, seafood, barbecue and pizza station. Across the road, La Trattoria serves wood-fired pizza and antipasti. Our highlight of the week comes when our prosciutto platter arrives at the same time as a marching band parading through the aisles of the restaurant. Sarà perché ti amo is already one of the catchiest songs in Italy, but that live version is just something else.

The final morning of my trip starts with a dash to the omelette station and a race down to the ski room. A day’s heavy blizzard has cleared for a gorgeous combination of blue sky and white, although the challenge of striking a balance between too hot and too cold proves tricky.

Aprés ski with a view at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere

At the festive après-ski, the dress code is black and gold. I head for the gourmet restaurant with a Fontina cheese fondue, slab of stone-grilled beef, and a walk-in wine room nearby. A combination I wouldn’t recommend on the night before an early-morning ski session, it’s a perfect indulgence as a send-off. It would be a shame not to make the most of one last dance party, too.

The Winter Olympics is about spectacular scenes and stirring action and a shared sense of wonder. Twenty years after it first hosted the Games, the spirit of the Olympics is still alive here.

Escape Notes

• Seven nights all-inclusive stay at Club Med Pragelato Sestriere, Italian Alps, from €2,697 per person (based on double occupancy) with equipment, lift passes, return flights from Dublin, and transfers all included..
• Club Med Pragelato Sestriere is 1,600m above sea level. There are three on-site restaurants, two bars, and four restaurants on the slopes included across the domain.
• clubmed.ie

• Maurice was a guest of Club Med