It starts with the name — featuring two cities as opposed to the usual one — and involves venues dotted across a large swath of northern Italy stretching from Milan to the Dolomites. The Milan-Cortina bid for the 2026 Olympics has the potential to revolutionize the Winter Games and leave a new blueprint for the future.

It's the first candidacy to fully embrace reforms demanded by IOC President Thomas Bach, seeking to cut costs and ease taxpayer concerns in the aftermath of Russia's $51 billion spending to prepare for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. "We're the forerunner and we take pride in that fact," Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, the same day that bid books were sent to the IOC.