Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics officially start with opening ceremony
· UPIFeb. 6 (UPI) -- The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics officially opened Friday evening as two Olympic cauldrons were lit in northern Italy officially opening the Games.
Although a handful of events began earlier in the week -- curling, figure skating and ice hockey -- the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics did not officially underway until tonight after performances by Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli, the Parade of Nations and a glitzy, colorful program of music and dance.
The opening ceremony started at 2 p.m. EST at Milan's historic, 100-year-old San Siro Stadium, running nearly 4 hours across four separate venues and concluding with cauldrons in both Milan and Cortina lighting up the night sky to open the Games.
The ceremony carried a theme of harmony -- between the Games' two host cities, as well as among those taking part in the Olympics -- at a time of relative discord around the globe, organizers said.
"Because there are two cities, Milan and Cortina, city and mountain, the harmony between man and nature, between cultures, people and different ways of thinking -- it is very meaningful and beautiful," Marco Balich, creative lead for the opening, said ahead of the event.
Onscreen countdowns at the opening sequence at San Siro highlighted Italian locales and cultural touchstones before Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, The White Lotus and The Paper star Sabrina Impacciatore, Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino and Italian singer Laura Pausini performed.
More than 2,900 athletes from 92 nations are expected to compete at this year's games, which are jointly being hosted by the cities of Milan and Cortina, two cities in northern Italy that are roughly 250 miles apart.
The Big Show
The majority of the intricate, ornate opening ceremony is being held at San Siro Stadium, which opened in 1926, has hosted several World Cup-linked events and is home to two Italian soccer clubs.
The Olympics is set to be its final event before the owners of those two teams demolish the stadium to build a newer, more modern facility for the two clubs.
In addition to the main ceremony at San Siro, a cauldron will be lit elsewhere in Milan and in Cortina, and athlete parades are set to be held at other venues in the city as organizers have sought to show off as many parts of the country that are part of the Games as possible. Overall, there are 13 venues hosting Olympic competition this year.
The two cauldrons -- at Milan's Arco della Pace and Cotrina's Piazza Dibona -- are in addition to the opening ceremony events in Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo.
On top of splitting up the ceremonies, there are multiple Olympic villages that athletes are staying in, a decision made so that they will not need to travel far between lodging, sporting venues and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Events at this year's Winter Games have been spread the several towns, in addition to the two host cities, which the Olympic ceremony director, Maria Laura Iascone, told NBC News is among the efforts of Italy chart "a new course" and innovate "a new spirit" of the opening ceremonies.
Events get underway
The ceremony opened with the Italian Olympic Committee spotlighting the southern European country's position as a "Winter wonderland," which included video presentations of mountains and towns that gave way to dance routines focused on community, love and harmony, according to organizers.
The glittery winter look moved toward an ode to Italian opera with actors dressed as Gioachina Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini performing to Rossini's "William Tell Overture."
Maria Carey, who performed for free, sang the Italian classic "Volare" in Italian blended with some of her song "Nothing Is Impossible," and wowed the crowd ahead of introductions of the president of Italy and the International Olympic Committee.
"Such a dream come true to perform (in Italian!) at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony," Carey said in a post on X. "Thank you to everyone who made this happen!"
In a tribute to legendary fashion designer Giorgio Armani, dozens of models decked out in loose red, white and green suits -- the colors of the Italian flag -- filed out into the center stadium.
Model Vittoria Ceretti, who is also known for dating Leonardo Dicaprio, carried an Italian flag out to an honor guard before Pausini sang the Italian national anthem, "Fratelli d'Italia" and Favino recited the Giacomo Leopardi poem "L'inifnito."
As dancers once again filled the center of the arena, two rings -- with actors reclining on them -- floated out to the stage. The actors rode the two rings most of the way up above the crowd, but leapt off before them before they joined three others high above the crowd to form the Olympic logo.
Nations parade in four venues
Rather than construct entirely new venues and housing for this Olympics, Italy opted instead to adapt and use existing structures for its Winter Games.
With the Games hosted by two cities that are 250 miles away from each other and events spread across northern Italy, the organizers clustered similar events in four areas, which has resulted in six villages for the athletes.
As a result, the Parade of Nations for this Olympics was actually four parades of nations -- San Siro, which is where they were hosted, and at sites in Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomite mountains, Livigno in the Alps and in Predazzo in the Trento region.
Starting with the team from Greece, which, as the birthplace of the Olympic Games, traditionally leads the the Parade of Nations, athletes made their official entrance to the Games through a large Olympic ring and down a walkway.
Each of the teams was announced at San Siro and each was represented by a person holding a sign with the name of the country on it, however for teams that paraded at one of the other three opening ceremony venues a screen showed them greeting crowds.
Both NBC News and CBS News noted that although it made the main stadium at San Siro appear about half empty, because so many athletes and spectators were spread across the four venues, the performance and broadcast delivery was remarkably "smooth."
Games declared open
Speeches delivered by Giovanni Malago, president of the Italian Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, president of the IOC and a seven-time Olympic medal winner from Zimbabwe, and Sergio Mattarella, president of the Italian Republic, officially opened the games.
Malago delivered the traditional message that the Olympic Games represent the ability of people from different cultures and countries to be "united by sport -- a universal language,"
He added that at challenging times for Italy, Europe and the world, the Milan Cortina games are meant to display harmony.
Coventry, who is also the first female president of the IOC, congratulated the athletes who will compete during the next two weeks, congratulating them for "how far you have come."
After Mattarella officially announced the start of the Games, Andrea Bocelli sang "Nessun Dorma," an aria from the Puccini opera "Turandot," according to NBC News, as video of the Olympic flames journey from Greece played on video in the stadium.
Before the torches arrived at the two cauldron's Charlize Theron read a "message of peace" from Nelson Mandela -- another allude to current world events -- that noted that "peace is not just the absence of conflict."
"Peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, class, caste or any other social markers of difference," she said.
Before the torch -- which traveled 75,000 miles through 60 cities and was carried by more than 10,000 people during its 63-day trek -- began its approach to either cauldron, the Olympic flag was delivered and raised at both.
The cauldrons, which can open and close, have a diameter of 10.2 feet and 14.8 feet with the flame encased in their center in glass and metal, according to CBS News, with their design inspired by and paying homage to Leonardo da Vinci's knot patterns.
Winter Olympics 2026 kick off with opening ceremony
The Olympic Rings come together during the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, on February 6, 2026 Photo by Richard Ellis/UPI | License Photo