The Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics officially open on Friday with a star-studded ceremony at Milan’s iconic San Siro Stadium, reports AFP.
The most geographically dispersed Winter Games in history will begin at 1900 GMT with a three-hour spectacle spanning venues from Italy’s financial capital to the Alps and the Dolomites.
While organisers have kept details secret, the ceremony is built around a theme of harmony, connecting Milan’s urban energy with the snow-covered landscapes of Cortina d’Ampezzo. For the first time, the 2,900 athletes will parade in venues closest to their competitions — Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo — in an effort to reduce travel.
The opening ceremony is expected to attract a global audience of hundreds of millions. Creative director Marco Balich said it offers “a unique platform to convey positive messages, not divisive ones.”
Balich, who also directed the opening ceremony at the 2006 Turin Winter Games, said the show would celebrate Italian design and fashion, with a tribute to legendary designer Giorgio Armani, who died last year. “The ceremony will tell the story of a young, modern Italy looking to the future, without indulging in the Dolce Vita,” he said.
Performers include American singer Mariah Carey, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
Among the dignitaries attending are US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance met International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry — overseeing her first Games since her election in March — at a dinner for heads of state on Thursday. The United States will host the next Olympics, the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Coventry said she hoped “anything that is distracting from” the Milan–Cortina Games would be set aside during the February 6–22 event, following controversy in Italy over reports that US immigration enforcement agents would have an advisory role at the Games. Rome has denied they will have any operational role.
Speculation also surrounds the final torchbearers. Two cauldrons inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s knot designs will be lit simultaneously — one beneath Milan’s Arch of Peace and the other in Cortina’s Piazza Dibona — with Italian media naming alpine skiing greats Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni.
Competition has already begun with curling and women’s ice hockey. The hockey tournament suffered an early setback when Canada’s match against Finland was postponed due to illness among Finnish players, though the United States opened their campaign with a 5–1 win over the Czech Republic.
Meanwhile, American ski star Lindsey Vonn is set to test her injured knee in downhill training on Friday. The 41-year-old, making an Olympic comeback, insists she will compete despite rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament last week.
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
