A Flame for Cortina D’Ampezzo in 1956
by Philip Barker
1956 flame exchanged in the mountains. (Official Report)
In exactly one month’s time, the Olympic Flame will be lit by actress Mary Mina in the magnificent surroundings of the temple of Hera in Olympia.
After making its way across Greece to Athens, the Flame begins its journey across Italy on December 6 from Rome.
It is scheduled to visit Cortina d’Ampezzo on January 26 and will reach the San Siro Stadium in Milan for the Opening Ceremony on February 6.
It is 70 years since Cortina first hosted the Winter Games. A Torch Relay carried the Flame to the Dolomites. However, in 1956 it was not lit in Ancient Olympia but at the Capitol in Rome.
The Relay was organised by a committee led by Emanuele Bianchi. The torch itself was of the same design as that used for the London Games of 1948.
At only four days the Relay was much shorter than the 63 days scheduled for the 2026 Games but it was nonetheless conducted in style.
Lit in the Temple of Jupiter at the Capitol in Rome, the Flame was carried through the halls in a grand procession, led by Rome’s Mayor Salvatore Rebecchini escorted by the historic order of the Fedeli di Vitorchiano.
There was a blessing by Clemente Micara, Vicar General of Rome and a trumpet fanfare before Adolfo Consolini, 1948 discus gold medallist took the Torch and ran across the Piazza Campidoglio to begin the journey to Cortina.
Waiting at the bottom of the steps in an open top car was Giuseppe “Pino” Dordoni, 50km race walk champion in 1952.
“Of all the honours I have received in sport, this is the greatest,” Dordoni insisted.
Dordoni held the Flame aloft as it made its way past the Colosseum along the Appian Way to Ciampino airport with an escort of riders on Vespa scooters.
There, it boarded a plane of the Italian Air Force for the flight to Venice, a distance of some 565 kilometres..
To guard against any delays caused by fog or other bad weather, organisers had arranged for a second Flame to be driven to Venice by road.
An Italian newspaper depicts the start of the 1956 Torch Relay.
There was indeed some delay before the Flame eventually touched down in Venice, there was a “warm and picturesque welcome to the Flame and applause from a large crowd” reported the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Dordoni was met by Adriano Guarnieri, a Nordic skier who had been the Italian flagbearer twenty years before at the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch Partenkirchen. Guarnieri then carried the Flame from the airport to the waterside.
It was carried on board a boat by veteran rower Gaston Cerato, a member of the Italian Olympic coxed four at the 1924 Paris Games, who helped row across the water.
There was a Ceremony in St Mark’s Square and the Torch was taken in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs with 1920 gold medal winning cox Guido de Filip on board. As a 16-year-old, De Filip had coxed Ercole Olgeni and Giovanni Scatturin to victory at the 1920 Antwerp Games.
“The procession of gondolas which accompanied the torch to Mestre was particularly impressive,” said the official report.
Mestre was some 10 kilometres away and roller skaters escorted the Flame when it reached dry land.
Alberta Vianello had already won two World Championship gold medals in roller skating and may well have been the first woman to officially carry the Flame in an Olympic Torch Relay.
Saverio Ragno, who had won epee team gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as the highlight of an illustrious career, was one of many fencers to be entrusted with the Torch in 1956.
At Mogliano Veneto, the torch was passed to Vicenzo Pinton, a silver medallist in team sabre in 1936 and at successive Games after the war.
In Treviso, the Relay was “welcomed to the city by an impressive crowd.” It was preceded by a Relay formed of runners from amateur clubs and student organisations and an escort of motorcyclists.
Yet another fencing silver medallist, Marco Antonio Andruzzato, carried the Flame in his home town.
The Torch was also passed to sprint cyclist Cesare Pinarello, a bronze medallist in the 1952 tandem.
The convoy headed into the mountains where it was carried from Zuel to the Aosta refuge by Italian Alpine troops.
On the eve of the Opening Ceremony, it was kept in the Chapel Madonna degli Alpini.
The Ceremony was scheduled to take place the following morning and a guard of honour tended the Flame overnight. Local police chief Lorenzo Capello passed the Flame to Zeno Colò, 1952 downhill gold medallist.
“His progress was marked for the whole valley to see, by a series of red, white, and green rockets, fired as he passed,” noted the Official Report of the Games.
He arrived at the River Boite and there passed the Flame to Severiano Menardi, an Olympian in Nordic disciplines in both 1932 and 1936.
In the town itself, Menardi handed the Flame to Enrico Colli who, with brother Vincenzo, had taken part in the first Winter Olympics at Chamonix in 1924.
Spectators formed an avenue for the final approach to the stadium where the Flame was taken on by speedskater Guido Caroli.
Unfortunately, as he skated around the stadium, Caroli tripped on a frozen television wire. Although he did not allow the Flame to go out, he was inconsolable afterwards. “I feel so ashamed,” he told reporters following the mishap.
Caroli competed in Cortina, his third Olympic Games and 50 years later, the last time the Winter Games were held on Italian soil, he was a guest at the Opening Ceremony in Turin when he spoke about his ordeal with the Olympic fire, but this time with a smile on his face.
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