Italy officially launches its Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina on Friday evening. The organizers have relied on resorts used to organizing World Cup stages, in order to reduce the bill and minimize the carbon footprint.

Published on: 02/06/2026 - 04:31 Modified on: 02/06/2026 - 06:58

It's the big day: Italy opens the Winter Olympic Games on Friday February 6 for the third time, returning to Europe in a new format of scattered sites, supposed to reduce their environmental impact in the face of climate change, which threatens the very existence of the event.

Organized in Italy 70 years after those of Cortina d'Ampezzo and 20 years after those of Turin, the 2026 Olympic Games will officially begin at 8 p.m. local time (GMT+1) during an opening ceremony organized simultaneously at the Milanese San Siro stadium and in the Alpine villages of Cortina d'Ampezzo, Predazzo and Livigno, hosts of the snow competitions in northern Italy.

These Milan-Cortina Games (February 6-22), whose events will be spread over 22,000 km2 and seven sites throughout the northeast of the peninsula, represent a logistical challenge, even if they are held on familiar ground after four more exotic editions from 2010 to 2022 (Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing).

Unlike the Russians in Sochi, hosts of the most expensive Games in history (24.6 billion euros) or the South Koreans in Pyeongchang, the Italian organizers have relied on resorts used to organizing World Cup stages, in order to reduce the bill – still announced at 5.2 billion euros – and to minimize the carbon footprint, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is now urging.

These Games, the first for Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry as patron of the world sports body, are taking place in a heavy geopolitical context, still marked in particular by the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East.

“Harmony” and demonstrations

The double Olympic swimming champion hoped on Sunday that "the spirit of the Games" would make it possible to leave aside "anything that distracts attention" from the competition, starting with the debates on the deployment in Italy of members of the American immigration police ICE.

Also read: What do American immigration police agents do in Italy?

On Wednesday evening, she saw in the cohabitation of “athletes from all backgrounds” in the Olympic village “a reminder of how we can behave with each other”.

The opening ceremony of Milan-Cortina, designed by Marco Balich and which is to be followed by several hundred million television viewers, will be placed under the sign of "harmony".

Also read At the Winter Olympics, neutrality as the only option for Russian and Belarusian athletes

The sports games, which began Wednesday evening with curling then women's ice hockey on Thursday, will give way to the traditional parade of athletes on the four selected sites.

Several demonstrations are planned in Milan, particularly around the San Siro stadium, to denounce the environmental impact of the Olympics and the presence of the ICE.

But in this legendary Italian football venue with 75,000 seats, the ceremony wants, according to its organizers, to deliver a message of "peace" while exalting "fantasy" and Italian culture.

J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio in the official forum

The expected stars have already leaked for several weeks, starting with the American star Mariah Carey, the opera singer Andrea Bocelli, the actor and producer Pierfrancesco Favino, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang and the singer Laura Pausini.

Read alsoWinter Olympics: when French dual nationals boost the African delegations

However, secrecy has been maintained regarding the identity of the last bearers of the flame, who will simultaneously ignite two basins inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's knots, under the Arch of Peace in Milan and on Piazza Dibona in Cortina.

But the Gazzetta dello Sport assured Wednesday that it would be Alberto Tomba in Milan and Deborah Compagnoni in Cortina, two of the finest achievements in Italian alpine skiing.

As with every opening ceremony, the show will also be in the official stands, with many leaders expected and a first meeting between Kirsty Coventry and the American administration – represented by Vice-President J. D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – two years before the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Milan-Cortina meeting will have other very attentive spectators: the organizers of the 2030 Olympics planned for the French Alps, again in dispersed mode.

With AFP

Keywords associated with the article

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.