The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics formally opened with a ceremony built around the Games’ unusual geography, combining the main celebration at Milan’s San Siro stadium with activity at competition hubs elsewhere in northern Italy. Athletes marched in multiple locations, while Olympic flames were lit simultaneously in Milan and Cortina to signal the start of the 2026 Games.

Italian skiing figures took leading roles in the cauldron-lighting sequence. Downhill champion Sofia Goggia lit the flame in Cortina. Retired Olympic champions Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni performed the corresponding honors in Milan, giving the conclusion a link to several generations of Italian Alpine success.

Goggia’s role carried particular significance. She and snowboarder Michela Moioli had helped present the Italian bid to International Olympic Committee members in 2019, when Milan Cortina defeated a Swedish candidacy. Goggia entered the home Games with an Olympic downhill gold from 2018 and silver from Beijing in 2022. She was also due to compete again in Cortina, where she had previously won four World Cup downhill races but missed the 2021 world championships through injury.

The parade reflected a Games spread among distinct mountain venues rather than concentrated in a single host city. Great Britain’s delegation appeared at Livigno Snow Park, Colombia’s flag bearer marched at the Predazzo ski-jumping stadium, and athletes from South Korea joined the parade in Livigno. Italy’s delegation closed the procession during the Milan broadcast.

Host-country flag-bearing duties in Cortina went to Federica Brignone, the defending overall World Cup champion, and Olympic curling champion Amos Mosaner. In a celebratory moment during the town-center parade, Mosaner carried Brignone on his shoulders.

The United States entered near the end of the parade order because it is scheduled to host the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. France, host of the preceding 2030 Winter Games, marched between the American and Italian teams. The United States brought 232 athletes, described as its largest Winter Olympic delegation, with Colorado contributing 30 competitors.

The opening took place after some Olympic competition had already begun. Earlier in the day, American world champion Alysa Liu skated her short program in the figure-skating team event. Training was also underway in Alpine skiing, with Canada’s James Crawford setting the best time in the final official men’s downhill session and American Jacqueline Wiles leading the first women’s downhill training run.

Attention turned immediately to the first full medal schedule. Events planned for the following day included the women’s cross-country skiathlon and women’s normal-hill ski jumping, alongside qualification and preliminary competition in freestyle skiing, curling, hockey and figure skating.

The ceremony therefore served less as the beginning of all sporting activity than as the formal public launch of a dispersed Olympic program. By linking Milan’s stadium production with mountain communities and using prominent Italian champions to light two cauldrons at once, organizers made the geography of Milan Cortina central to the opening statement of the Games.