Numbers Notes and Curiosities From Milano Cortina 2026

Numbers Notes and Curiosities From Milano Cortina 2026

by Myles A. Garcia

The dual hosting and widespread geographical nature of the 2026 Games—split between the city of Milan and mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo and other alpine resorts in Northern Italy—presented a unique set of stories for both the Olympics and Paralympics.

It recalled the year when Cortina first hosted the Winter Games 70 years ago in 1956. The Olympic Games that year were held in Melbourne but it was necessary to hold the Equestrian Games in Stockholm because of strict quarantine regulations in Australia.

Olympics  February 4-22, 2026

93 nations, 2,807 athletes;  16 disciplines; 116 medal events

Olympic Opening Ceremony. – February 6, 2026

Milan – San Siro Stadium – originally built almost a century ago and modernised for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. It will eventually be demolished after a new stadium has been built for Milan and Internazionale.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony was held at the San Siro in Milan with simultaneous protocol moments at Cortina D’Ampezzo’s – Piazza Angelo Dibona.

The Parade of Nations was split between venues and some countries did not have competitors in Milan. The television coverage switched to each venue to show the entry of the respective teams.

Greece led the Parade of Nations as has been the tradition since 1928.

They did not, however, have any representatives at the San Siro Stadium. The Greek team of five were all skiers based in the mountains and their athletes took part in the parade held there. A request had been made by the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) to allow the entire team to appear in Milan but an HOC media release said that this had been turned down by organisers.

Organising Committee President Giovanni  Malagò also included a few phrases in Spanish as part of his official address, the first time since  Barcelona 1992 that the language had been used in this context.

John Lennon’s “Imagine” was included in the Ceremony but the popular Italian song  “Nel blu,  dipinto di blu “(better known as “Volare”) was sung by Mariah Carey at the Opening Ceremony and at the Closing Ceremony.

Unusually the colour party carrying the Olympic Flag at the Opening Ceremony were dressed in darker costumes than normal. (Since 1984, the convention has been to dress them in white.)

United Nations “Messenger of Peace” Charlize Theron wore black when delivering her speech at the Opening Ceremony.

The torch bearers in the stadium did not run, as is customary, but walked around the stadium.

This was the first time “two cauldrons” were ignited simultaneously. Neither was located in the stadium where the Opening declaration took place. (Two cauldrons had previously been lit alongside one another at the 1976 Innsbruck Opening Ceremony)

The cauldron at the Arco della Pace in Milan was lit by legendary Italian skiing champions Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni. At the same time Sofia Goggia ignited the cauldron in Cortina.

This time there was no ‘show’ cauldron in the stadium.

Similarities with Torino 2006.

Marco Balich was in overall charge of Ceremonies both in 2006 and 2026.

Andrea Bocelli sang “Nessun Dorma” at the Opening Ceremony and Roberto Bolle danced at the Closing Ceremony. Both had previously performed at the Torino 2006 Closing Ceremony.

Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Firsts 

• Benin, Guinea-Bissau and the United Arab Emirates took part in the Winter Games for the first time.
• Ski Mountaineering was included in the programme for the first time.
• Marianne Fatton of Switzerland won the women’s sprint to become the first Olympic champion in the sport.
• The gold won by Oriol Cardona in the men’s sprint was the first for Spain in the Winter Games since 1972.
• The giant slalom gold won by Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro was also the first medal of any colour for a South American country.
• A  mother and son competed at the same Games for the first time. 47-year old Sarah Schleper was making  her seventh appearance and took part in the women’s super G and giant slalom. She was joined by her 18-year old son, Lasse Gaxiola who raced in the giant slalom. Both represented Mexico.
• There were three sets of siblings in the 226 strong United States team. Identical twins Tabitha and Tara Peterson formed half of the women’s curling team which finished fourth. The gold medal winning US men’s ice hockey squad included Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk and also Quinn and Jack Hughes who scored the winning goal in the gold medal match against Canada. It was an echo of the 1960 ice hockey  when brothers Rog and Billy Christian were joined by Bill and Bobby Cleary in the US gold medal winning side.
• Norwegian Cross country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won a record six gold medals at the 2026 Games. (American Speedskater Eric Heiden had previously won five at the 1980 Lake Placid Games) Klaebo was now has 11 gold medals and is the first Winter competitor to reach double figures. The only Olympian to have won more is swimmer Michael Phelps.

Finishing backwards is cool!

Two medal winners crossed the line backwards. In the dual moguls Ikuru Horishima of Japan did so to win silver. At short track,  Pietro Sighel did so in the mixed team final as Italy won gold and finished in the same fashion in a heat of the 500m.

In figure skating, the once forbidden back flip is now legal. Ilia Malinin of the United States incorporated the back flip into his free skating routine.

It should be noted that at the 1998 Games in Nagano, French skater Surya Bonaly ended her performance with such a move landing on one foot.

Television

1,300 cameras were used in the television coverage by Olympic Broadcasting Services and NBC.

But NBC’s viewership numbers in the US were up 94% from Beijing 2022.

Volunteers

There were 18,000 volunteers from 90 countries.The oldest was 89 year old Mario Gargiulo. He appeared in the tribute to volunteers during the Closing Ceremony. He had also been a volunteer at the 1956 Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo when still a teenager.

Closing Ceremony

Arena di Verona.

Built in the year 30 AD, it  was the oldest extant structure (built in 30  AD) to host a full Olympic ceremony.

This ancient arena was chosen for the Closing Ceremony although Verona had not staged any sporting event in the Games.

Except for a few controlled pyrotechnics on the stage floor, no aerial fireworks were seen at the Closing. This was because Verona had introduced a ban during special events such as New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Perfomances at the Ceremony were ‘ split’ between the open air stage at the arena and the Teatro Filarmonico of Verona where musicians using priceless, classical instruments performed. While the Olympic Flame was being extinguished, it was accompanied by the Olympic Anthem and lowering of the Olympic Flag.

(At the  1998 Nagano Olympics, there had been a remote performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” conducted by Seiji Ozawa featuring choristers gathered in locations across all the continents.)

The sequence when the two Flames were extinguished was amongst the most elaborate and drawn-out moments in recent memory. The Flames died to the accompaniment of Ludovico Einaudi’s piece “Experience” performed by a female pianist, Gloria Campaner.

Handover to the French Alps.

Ever since the “Handover” switched to the Closing Ceremony in 1984, the  “mini-show” by the next host city has become a major anticipated segment in the Closing Ceremony. In these it was customary for the emblem of the next Games to be unveiled to the world. On this occasion, the French Alps, the hosts in 2030 did not have anything official to reveal to the world.  Instead there was a  “son-et-lumiere” which featured a new arrangement of the French National anthem “La Marseillaise,” and  medal-winning French athletes. It also featured a about winter sports in the mountains—but no logo or mascot.

Paralympics March 4-15, 2026

55 nations, 611 athletes;  6 sports; 79 medal events 

Opening Ceremony in Arena di Verona.  March 6 2026

The Paralympic Flame was originally lit on February 24, 2026, in Stoke Mandeville, where the first sports for the disabled events had taken place in 1948. British Para skier Millie Knight and Italian Para ice hockey vice captain Andrea Macri took part.

In a special Ceremony in Cortina d’Ampezzo the Stoke Mandeville flame was brought together with Flames lit at Festivals in Milan, Bolzano Trente and Trieste at a “Flame Unification” Ceremony.

Five groups of five Torchbearers  each carried one of the Flames along the main public street. They included International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, the IPC Vice Presidents Leila Marques Mota and John Petersson, IPC Chief Executive Dr Mike Peters, eight time Paraskiing gold medallist  Marie Bochet of France  and  Italy’s Olympic curling gold medallist Stefania Constantini.

In Verona, Para fencing gold medallist Bebe Vio carried the Flame into the stadium.

The cauldron in Milan was lit by visually impaired Para skier Gianmaria Dal Maistro,  gold medallist at Torino 2006.

The cauldron in Cortina was ignited by 2010 Para cross country skiing gold medallist Francesca Porcellato.

The Ceremony included a representation of scenes from Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona. As in the Olympic Opening Ceremony, there was also a performance of “Nel blu,  dipinto di blu” (“Volare”).

Most of the competitors watched from the athlete accommodation in  Cortina or Milan.

Although flag bearers had been named by all nations, the IPC explained “it was agreed with competing National Paralympic Committees in in August 2025 that volunteers would carry each nation’s flag during the Opening Ceremony in Verona as not all flagbearers were able to attend. All NPC flagbearers will feature in short films which will be played out during the Athlete Parade of the Opening Ceremony.”

The IPC had also decided that Russia and Belarus would be permitted to compete under their own flags.

Ukraine announced that they were boycotting the Ceremony. Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, were listed as “deciding not to name Flag bearers.”

On the eve of the competition, it was announced that the sole Iranian competitor, Para cross country skier Aboulfazl Khatibi Mianaei,  would not compete because he was unable to “travel safely to Italy,” after the outbreak of conflict with the the US and Israel.

Visually impaired Para skier Veronika Aigner of Austria was the most successful individual competitor with four gold medals and a silver.

Para cross country skier Oksana Masters won four gold medals and a bronze medal to take her tally to 27 Paralympic medals in Summer and Winter Games. She is the most successful US Paralympian.

Her compatriot Jake Adicoff won four gold medals in Para cross country skiing.

As at the Olympics, Brazil won their first Paralympic Winter medal. It came in Para cross country skiing from Cristian Ribeira who won silver in the sitting sprint.

The Paralympic Closing Ceremony was held at the Stadio del Ghiaccio (Ice Stadium) which had been used for the Ceremonies, figure skating and ice hockey in 1956 and curling and Para Curling in 2026. The capacity had been increased to 3,500 and was now an enclosed, temperature-controlled facility. So, it appears that Italy’s Winter Games hosting duties had come full circle.

Post script – on the venues

The San Siro Stadium which hosted the Olympic Opening Ceremony is set to be demolished when a new stadium is built for the city’s two major football clubs, Milan and Internazionale.

It is set to become the latest Opening Ceremony venue to be dismantled after Squaw  Valley 1960, Grenoble 1968, Lake Placid 1980, Albertville 1992 and PyeongChang 2018.

In many of these, all that remains is a cauldron or a commemorative plaque.

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