From San Siro to the Dolomites: A multi-site opening sets the tone for Milano Cortina 2026

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee today reflected on the 2026 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony, lauding its artistry, logistics and athlete-centred approach.

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Milano Cortina 2026 IOC News

Key facts

Tone and theme: Elegant, deeply Italian, emotional — the ceremony linked city and mountains in a Games first.
Delivery: Multi‑site live show across four venues, with cauldrons lit in central Milan and Cortina, ran smoothly despite the complexity.
Scale: 61,221 tickets sold at San Siro plus 10,000 in the mountains, with 1,400 performers, 1,200 volunteers, 500 musicians and more than 700 hours of rehearsals.

The ceremony marked a milestone for the Olympic Movement: a multi-site celebration mirroring the concept of the Games, uniting Milan’s San Siro, now forever an Olympic stadium, with the mountain clusters in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo, under the creative concept of “Harmony” or “Armonia” in Italian.

Athletes at the centre

Athletes paraded close to their competition venues rather than convening in a single stadium. Two Olympic cauldrons were lit — at the Arco della Pace in Milan and in Cortina’s Piazza Angelo Dibona — symbolically linking city and mountains.

Performances ranged from Laura Pausini’s singing of the National Anthem to Mariah Carey’s interpretation of “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu”.

Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s Olympic Games Executive Director, described the ceremony’s tone and identity as quintessentially Italian. “The feeling I had was how elegant, beautiful and profoundly Italian the ceremony was. I thought it was incredibly powerful. It gave me goosebumps. It was really moving. And what an opportunity it was to give those in the mountains the chance to be part of the ceremony, and how proud those athletes were.”

Andrea Varnier, CEO of Milano Cortina 2026, underlined the scale and complexity of staging a multisite live production and the team’s performance on the night. “It was special to tell the story of the Games and set the tone. The Opening Ceremony is the biggest period of work for an organising committee. It was a big test for everyone working at these Games. Yesterday, everything went very well. It was not easy given the very special context we had chosen for the ceremony. We had four different venues involved, and we also kindled the Olympic flame in the centre of Milan. I am so happy about the result we achieved. I saw wonderful pictures of smiling athletes from Livigno, Predazzo and Cortina.”

Enthusiasm and Broad Participation

Ticket demand reflected that enthusiasm, with Varnier adding: “We sold 61,221 tickets, and another 10,000 people attended the remote ceremonies.”

Organising Committee Ceremonies Director Maria Laura Iascone situated the creative intent in a single word: Armonia. “We have been working for years on this ceremony to tell a story about the Italian spirit, passion and harmony. ‘Harmony’ (‘Armonia’ in Italian) was the title of our Ceremony. We wanted to show the connection of our people and the strong value of peace. Hopefully, we made people smile, laugh and maybe even cry in a carnival of colour, music and emotion.”

She paid tribute to the workforce behind the scenes: “Thousands of people worked on this ceremony. We had 1,400 performers, 1,200 volunteers (in Milan) and thousands of other volunteers across different areas. There were over 700 hours of rehearsals and 500 musicians. These are the big figures that helped make the ceremony unforgettable.”

Parade Across Italy

The Ceremony’s spread-out format was designed around athletes and territories: the Parade of Nations unfolded concurrently in Milan, Livigno, Predazzo and Cortina d’Ampezzo, transforming Italy’s geography into a single, shared stage. In keeping with the narrative of “Harmony”, symbolism bridged eras and places — from the Olympic flag’s multilocation procession to the simultaneous lighting of the two cauldrons, by Olympic champions Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni in Milan and Sofia Goggia in Cortina.