The Milan Cortina Olympics
officially open with a multi-site ceremony for a spread-out Winter Games
[February 07, 2026]
By HOWARD FENDRICH
MILAN (AP) — Featuring tributes to da Vinci and Dante, Puccini and
Pausini, Armani and Fellini, pasta and vino, and other iconic tastes
of Italian culture — plus Mariah Carey hitting all the high notes in
“Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” aka “Volare” — an unprecedented four-site,
dual-cauldron opening ceremony got the Milan Cortina Olympics
officially started Friday.
Allowing athletes to participate in the Parade of Nations at the
mountain locales for the most spread-out Winter Games in history
created what perhaps was an unintended consequence: Zero competitors
from any of the first five countries announced actually showed up at
the main hub, Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium.
While signs bearing the names of Greece — which always leads the
procession as the birthplace of the Olympics — Albania, Andorra,
Saudi Arabia and Argentina were carried into the home of Serie A
soccer titans AC Milan and Inter Milan, there were no athletes from
those places around. Instead, they were participating at
simultaneous festivities held at Cortina d’Ampezzo in the heart of
the Dolomites, Livigno in the Alps, and Predazzo in the autonomous
province of Trento.
The first country with athletes at San Siro was Armenia — and their
entrance drew raucous cheers from a crowd filled with 61,000
ticket-holders plus others.
Later, a smattering of boos met Israel’s four representatives at the
Milan ceremony. There have been some calls for Israel to be banned
from the Olympics over the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’
deadly attack in October 2023.
And while athletes from the U.S. were cheered when they appeared,
Vice President JD Vance was jeered when he was shown briefly on the
arena's video boards from his spot in the tribune. Support for the
United States among its allies has been eroding as the Trump
administration has taken an aggressive posture on foreign policy,
including punishing tariffs, military action in Venezuela and
threats to invade Greenland.
The contingent from Venezuela got a big backing when entering. So
did that from Ukraine, where a war continues four years after Russia
invaded.
The ceremony’s organizers have said they sought to convey themes of
harmony and peace, seeking to represent the city-mountain dichotomy
of the particularly unusual setup for these Olympics while also
trying to appeal to a sense of unity at a time of global tensions.
South African actor Charlize Theron and Italian rapper Ghali
delivered messages of peace toward the end of the night.
“I hope the opening ceremony is seen by everyone as an opportunity
to be respectful,” new International Olympic Committee President
Kirsty Coventry said when asked this week about possible crowd
reactions.
The loudest greeting was reserved, naturally, for host Italy, which
walked in last, to an electronic version of “The Barber of Seville."
The ceremony was already nearly three hours old — and not yet done —
by the time Italian President Sergio Mattarella officially declared
the Milan Cortina Games open following a speech by Coventry, the
first woman to lead the IOC.
“Thank you for believing in the magic of the Olympic Games,” she
said, then several minutes later made sure to make mention of the
“media rights holders” who pay to broadcast the event.
Soon, tenor Andrea Bocelli's voice was belting out Puccini’s “Nessun
Dorma" and its closing refrain of “Vincerò,” Italian for “I will
win!" As he concluded, torch bearers headed out of the arena toward
a cauldron at the Arch of Peace, 2½ miles (4 kilometers) from San
Siro.
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Sergio Mattarella President of Italy, center, his wife Laura
Mattarella, left, and Kirsty Coventry President of the IOC attend
the Olympic opening ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan,
Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Andreas Rentz/Pool Photo via AP)
One symbol of how far-flung things are at these
Olympics: Instead of the usual one cauldron that is lit and burns
throughout the Games, there were two, both intended as an homage to
Leonardo da Vinci’s geometric studies. The other is 250 miles (400
kilometers) away in Cortina.
All three flame-lighters — Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni in
Milan, and Sofia Goggia in Cortina -- are Olympic champion Alpine
ski racers from Italy. Tomba and Compagnoni are retired; Goggia is
entered in the 2026 Games.
The full collection of competition venues for the next two-plus
weeks dot an area of about 8,500 square miles (more than 22,000
square kilometers), roughly the size of the entire state of New
Jersey. The multi-city ceremony format Friday allowed
up-in-the-mountains sports such as Alpine skiing, bobsled, curling
and snowboarding to be represented without requiring folks to make
the several-hours-long trek to Milan.
It didn’t exactly feel like a Winter Games in the country's
financial capital, where the temperature was a tad below 50 degrees
Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), and the sky was a crisp, clear
azure all afternoon Friday. Not a trace of clouds, let alone snow.
As Italy welcomed the world by displaying symbols of its heritage,
the show produced by Olympic ceremony veteran Marco Balich began
with dancers from the academy of the famed Milan opera house Teatro
alla Scala reimagining 18th-century sculptor Antonio Canova’s marble
works.
People wearing oversized, mascot-style heads representing opera
composers Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi
appeared on the central stage, before giant paint tubes floated
above and dropped silk of red, blue and yellow — the primary colors
— before an early parade of various-color-wearing characters arrived
in the stadium. They represented music and art, literature and
architecture, appreciations for beauty and history and, above all,
“La Dolce Vita” (loosely, Italian for “The Good Life” and the name
of a 1960 film by Federico Fellini).
There were references to ancient Rome, the Renaissance, the Venice
Carnival and the country’s noted traditions in various areas such as
cuisine and literature, such as “Pinocchio” and Dante’s “Inferno.”
A runway walk showcased outfits — created by the late fashion
designer Giorgio Armani, who died last year at 91 — in the colors of
Italy’s flag: red, green and white. And balladeer Laura Pausini sang
Italy’s national anthem.
Carey got loud cheers in Milan as she sang in Italian. In Cortina,
hundreds of fans sang along with her, and a roar emerged when they
realized she was performing the song with the “Volare” refrain.
Another local touch: Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore, of “White
Lotus” fame, led a segment that took viewers through a century of
past Olympics, with examples of evolving equipment, sportswear and
music. And actress and comedian Brenda Lodigiani demonstrated the
popular Italian hand gestures often used to communicate in place of
words.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Barry contributed to this report.
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