2026 Torch Relay to Be ‘Greatest Journey’

2026 Torch Relay to Be ‘Greatest Journey’

The Olympic Flame for Milan Cortina 2026 is set to cross Italy in a 63-day journey, organisers revealed this week.

“This ‘Greatest Journey’ is the moment when Milano Cortina 2026 will embrace our country, uniting Italy in a celebration of national pride.” claimed Milan Cortina 2026 Organising Committee President Andrea Varnier.

It is expected that some 10,000 torchbearers will carry the Flame.

The Flame will be kindled in Ancient Olympia on November 25th, the latest it has been lit since that for the 2006 Games in Torino.

It is set to arrive in Rome on December 4th. The itinerary includes many of Italy’s UNESCO World Heritage sites before arriving for the Opening Ceremony at the San Siro Stadium in Milan on February 6th.

Before arriving in Milan, the Relay will visit twin host Cortina D’Ampezzo on January 26th to mark 70 years since the 1956 Games were opened. Back then, the Flame was ignited in Rome not Olympia. The Ceremony took place only four days before the Games were to open.

Olympic discus Champion Adolfo Consolini carried the Torch down the steps of the Piazza del Campidoglio. He was met by 1952 race walking gold medallist ‘Pino’ Dordoni, who carried the Flame as it travelled by car to the airport with an escort of scooters.

The Flame visited Venice before it reached the mountains.

It arrived at the stadium in the hands of speedskater Guido Caroli, but a frozen microphone cable nearly spoiled the moment as Caroli took a tumble.

Newspapers of the day recorded how “The flaming Torch and its carrier Guido Caroli went sprawling on the ice, but Caroli held on to the Torch and it didn’t go out.”

In 2006 Caroli was a special guest at the Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony and recalled events on the fateful day half a century before.

“They had left a microphone cable along the track. I actually noticed it during the rehearsal the day before. The Master of Ceremonies had also warned me to be careful but made sure that they would have disconnected it. The problem is that the night was so cold, the plug froze to the point that no one was able to remove it. Too bad that no one warned me.”

The first Torch Relay had been for the 1952 Oslo Games and was intended as “a Torch greeting from the cradle of modern skiing.”

It was lit in Morgedal at the home of Sondre Norheim, revered in Norway as the father of modern skiing.

The Innsbruck Games of 1964 were the first for which a Flame was kindled in Olympia.

In fact, it had been intended that the Flame for the 1960 Games in Squaw Valley, California would be lit in Olympia. Walt Disney was in charge of Pageantry for the Games but it seems that no-one in the organising committee had informed the Hellenic Olympic Committee of their intentions.

By the time the mistake was realised, it was too late.

In a Lausanne newspaper, Swiss journalist Frederic Schlatter sarcastically observed: “In this case, it is infinitely easier to order the sun to rise in Walt Disney’s films than to make the sun shine in Olympia during the Winter!”

The Flame was therefore lit for a second time in Morgedal and flown to California. Even so, it still bore the words “VIII Olympic Winter Games 1960 Olympia to Squaw Valley” as there had been insufficient time to alter the inscriptions.

So it was that Innsbruck was the first Winter Olympic Games at which the Flame came from Olympia.

When the city staged the Games again in 1976, a second cauldron was lit and three Flames burned in 2012 when Innsbruck celebrated the first Youth Olympic Winter Games.

A substantial Relay was organised for the 1968 Grenoble Games, and the Flame for Sapporo covered 18,741km in a journey split into three to cover as much ground as possible.

The Torch Relay for the Calgary 1988 Games followed the example of the 1984 Los Angeles Organisers. Some 10 million application forms were sent out and from the replies, around 7,000 bearers were chosen.

Since then many members of the public have joined sports stars and other personalities to convey the Flame.

In November 2013, Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky even carried an unlit Torch outside the International Space Station on a space walk. The Relay across Russia covered some 65,000 kilometres.

The Milan Cortina Relay is set to signal a return to the Relays of mass participation.

The last Winter Torch Relay for Beijing 2022 was truncated from the outset, ostensibly because of COVID.

During the lighting Ceremony, demonstrators infiltrated the archaeological site to protest against human rights violations in China.

There was a very brief run in Ancient Olympia, but the Torch was not taken on its traditional journey across Greece and not seen again until the Handover Ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

The domestic Relay in China was held over only three days and conducted in restricted areas.

Ceremony Director Zhang Yimou had promised that the Flame would be lit in a way that was “unprecedented in over 100 years of the Olympic Games.”

It had been designed to convey a message of sustainability, but many were disappointed that the “Microflame” was almost invisible.

Although it burned in the Olympic Park outside the stadium, the area was restricted so only a few were able to view it at close quarters.

More attention was given to the selection of Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang.

Human rights groups condemned the choice as an attempt to deflect criticism from alleged abuse of Uyghur communities by the Chinese government agencies.

In addition to our website, you can also find information on Olympic history, personalities and stories on our social media platforms facebook, twitter and instagram @ISOHOlympic and Via Linked at LinkedIn: isoh.org/linkedin