Inside the 2026 Olympic Winter Games: The Final Torch Relay

SportsTravel publisher Jason Gewirtz is on the ground in Italy for the Winter Olympic Games. Follow along here for his latest updates.

MILAN — The Olympic flame is one of those iconic symbols that has endured for generations. And on the eve of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, thousands packed Milan’s historic Piazza del Duomo to get just a glimpse of the magic as the torch relay nears its end.

Spirits were high, despite a light rain that came and went in the hours leading up to one of the final journeys on a 7,500-mile adventure that began in Greece and is nearly complete in Milan. The square that houses the city’s famous cathedral and similarly famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall (for those who practice a different religion) was alive with activity. The Olympic Games mascots, Tina and Milo — who are described as “two cheerful stoats” — were there, as were DJs who spun Italian pop songs through the night while fans waited for the flame.

And fans did have to wait: The flame was running about an hour behind schedule. But with so many torch bearers wanting their moment in the sun along the route, it was easy to understand why.

Most fans in the square were behind barricades that sat quite a distance from the action. From their angles around the square, the vast majority would have missed when Italian ballerina Nicoletta Manni finally emerged from the covered Galleria with the precious flame. But temporary display screens showed the action live, which drew plenty of cheers from the crowd as it was happening.

Manni stopped for dramatic effect before entering a stage and performed a few ballerina moves with the torch that might have given relay organizers a few small heart murmurs, especially with the wet concrete below. Nonetheless, she executed flawlessly and managed to work her way to the stage where she lit a traditional-looking cauldron for dramatic effect.

That cauldron won’t be the official cauldron (or cauldrons…) that gets lit at the Opening Ceremony, but served as a fantastic teaser for the drama coming as the Games get ready to begin.