The countdown is on until the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina with the opening ceremony in less than 24 hours for what’s described as “an opening ceremony unlike any other.”
The historic event will take place throughout several locations on Feb. 6 including the Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium, the city of Cortina d’Ampezzo and other locations in northern Italy that will host athletes for competitions.
The opening ceremony, will feature the theme of harmony, to convey the message of “peace, unity, and dialogue.” Italian spirit will also be celebrated through the display of light, colour, tradition, art and culture.
Marco Balich, the creative lead of the opening ceremony, said in a press release that the event should not be one that’s solely known for its extravagance.
“Above all, it is a story made up of people and emotions," Balich said. "In a complex world, we want to offer a message of harmony, beauty and peace that can speak to everyone.”
Firsts on firsts for this Olympic Games
For the first time ever there will be two Olympic Cauldrons at the Olympic Games. One will be in Milano, at the Arco della Pace, and the other in Piazza Dibona in Cortina.
"It will be the first opening ceremony [across multiple venues] in the history of the [Winter] Olympics,” Balich said.
“Of course the hub is San Siro Stadium but overall, we need to create a big embrace that will allow [everyone] to simultaneously join in the peak moment of the ceremony, such as the lighting of the cauldron, the athlete parade and the Torchbearer moments,” he said.
Maria Laura Iascone, director of the Milano Cortina Ceremonies, said the opening ceremony in Milano Cortina will mark a new beginning for future Olympic Games.
"For the first time we are setting a standard that will become something usual in the future for those having multiple locations, which is the widespread Ceremony concept", Iascone said.
"The concept starts from the variety of territories that we are using as ceremony venues,” she said. “Starting from Milano and Cortina, the two host cities that will [feature in the] opening ceremony together with Livigno and Predazzo for the parade section.”
Iascone said Milano Cortina will be the city where the cauldrons will be lit and extinguished to symbolize the beginning and end of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
"Every country wants to tell the story about its own culture, its own values, and wants to leave a legacy which is a message to the future generation,” she said.
"So somehow, in different ways with different formats, the purpose of the ceremony and [its] vision is really to leave a mark: in the mind, in the heart of everybody, to be proud of what they see, and to be inspired for the future,” Iascone said.
Over one thousand volunteers will participate in the live performances during an event organized between Milano, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo. All this will complement planned performances by major international artists such as five-time Grammy Award-winning superstar Mariah Carey, legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli, and Golden Globe winner Laura Pausini among others.
Fan reactions
Isabella Malo, a fan of the Olympics from Oshawa, Ont., said she is excited to watch the Olympics because of the dynamic each team brings and to be able to witness the athletes’ “years' worth of training.”
Malo said of the events taking place at the Games she is most excited for ice hockey, snowboarding and skiing, but loves figure skating.
She said their “elegant performances, the alluring costumes, and the techniques in the skaters dancing” are all qualities that draws her to watching the sport.
The same could be said for viewers across the pond in Europe.
Pia Kadunc, a fan of the Olympics from Grosuplje, Slovenia said she is very excited to see the Canadian men’s ice hockey team in action.
Kadunc said she has become a recent fan of the sport after watching the Crave show Heated Rivalry and cannot wait to see Canada’s Macklin Celebrini in his first match on Feb. 12.
In addition to supporting the Canadian team, she said she will also be supporting her home team in ski jumping and alpine skiing. Star ski jumpers and siblings from Kranj, Slovenia, Nika and Domen Prevc will represent their country in their first Olympic Games and serve as flagbearers.
Nika enters Predazzo at the top of the World Cup standings by 486 points, cementing herself as one of the favourites to win gold.
Domen has also had major success this season also topping the World Cup standings with 1,614 points, as Japan’s Rayoyu Kobayashi sits well behind him with 989 points. He has also won two gold medals at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, the FIS Flying World Cup title in 2024-25 and the Four Hills tournament this season.
Currently, Domen holds the ski jumping world record of 254.5 metres which was set at the Letalnica bratov Gorišek ski flying hill in Planica, Slovenia, on March 30, 2025.
This Olympic Games will be the third Winter Olympics and fourth overall Olympics to be hosted by Italy, and the first Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities. The last time Cortina hosted the Olympics was in 1956, at Cortina d'Ampezzo.
This time around, Milan is set to host most of the ice events, with the rest of the events being hosted in smaller quantities around Cortina and the Valtellina and Fiemme valleys.
The opening ceremony will begin on Feb. 6 at 1:50 p.m. local time on CBC and CBC Gem.
