The opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was sober but elegant and full of references to Made in Italy and tributes to the great Italians of history, recent and past: from Raffaella Carrà to the musicians Giuseppe Verdi, Gioacchino Rossini and Giacomo Puccini, from Giorgio Armani to Giacomo Leopardi and Gianni Rodari, up to Valentino Rossi who in one passage of the evening, wearing the clothes of the tram driver, "accompany" to the Meazza stadium in Milan the President of the Republic Sergio MattarellaHe then appeared in the grandstand alongside IOC President Kirsty Coventry of South Africa and other less Olympic-minded officials, such as US Vice President JD Vance. Mariah Carey also performed on stage, but there were plenty of VIPs attending the ceremony and guests, albeit keeping a low profile.
It was therefore a moment of iconic representation of our values and culture: art, fashion, music, literature, food, and the inevitable Mameli Anthem sung by Laura Pausini and also performed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the Venetian Dolomites, simultaneously with Milan, which was the epicenter of a ceremony that also spread to the other Olympic venues, so as not to exclude athletes, staff, and journalists already ready on the competition fields. Then came the parade of Olympic delegations: the first to march were the athletes from Greece, with the Italian delegation closing the parade. In the middle, the other nations, in alphabetical order, representing 93 countries, with the first time ever at the Winter Games in Benin, Guinea Bissau and the United Arab EmiratesThe Olympics will run until Sunday, February 22, and will mark the debut of new disciplines, such as ski mountaineering.
The Italian delegation in the parade was composed of 146 athletes from the Italian TeamAt San Siro, the parade was led by flag bearers Arianna Fontana and Federico Pellegrino. Accompanied by CONI Secretary General and Head of Mission Carlo Mornati, 70 athletes from five disciplines (short track, figure skating, speed skating, hockey, and cross-country skiing) marched. At Cortina, led by flag bearers Federica Brignone and Amos Mosaner, another 35 athletes from four disciplines (curling, alpine skiing, skeleton, and luge) marched; at Predazzo, 13 athletes from three disciplines (ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined) marched, while at Livigno, 28 athletes from four disciplines (ski mountaineering, alpine skiing, freestyle, and snowboarding) took part.
