The next Winter Olympics and Paralympics is due to be held over across an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres in northern Italy, making it the most geographically widespread of all time.

Six clusters of venues are planned.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is increasingly encouraging the use of existing venues, although Milan Cortina 2026's planned new sliding centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo has proved a controversial initiative.

Varnier described the Milan Cortina 2026 concept in an interview with the New York Times as "first of all, go where the infrastructure and the experience is".

Concerns have also been raised that the distance between venues could dampen the "Olympic spirit", but Varnier insisted in an interview it was a model that represented the future for the Games.

"It’s important that we understand that there’s a new system," he told the New York Times.

"Because if this concept works, it will mean more opportunities for other countries to host the Games.

"So transportation, for example: we will do in-cluster transportation, and then we will recommend the use of public transportation between clusters as much as possible.

"We’re trying to rationalise the entire system for this Games, and hopefully to leave as a legacy for future potential Organising Committees or candidate cities, that they can think of the Games in a larger area, to involve a larger piece of the population, to use existing infrastructure."

Varnier claimed that because of the costs of hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, continuing with a model centred on one city would risk "nobody will do the Games in Europe anymore".

The IOC has heavily discussed the future of winter sport in recent months, with struggles finding a host for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics prompting a delay to plans to finalise a host at this year's Session.

A system of permanent rotating hosts for the Winter Games is under consideration.

Varnier added the IOC is "very involved" with preparations for Milan Cortina 2026 because "some of the things that we will start here may become a new norm".

Preparations for Milan Cortina 2026 have been marred by disruption, including Varnier's protracted appointment to succeed Vincenzo Novari in November last year.

However, the lifetime budget has remained at around €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion/$1.6 billion).