Previewing the 2026 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony

Editor’s Note: This is part of SportsTravel’s ongoing Olympic preview week. Check back each day this week for more.

February 2: What to expect at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, by Jason Gewirtz

February 3: Previewing each venue — and whether they’ll all be ready, by Paul Stevens

February 4: Looking back 20 years at the last Winter Games in Italy, by Ted Keith

February 5: 8 Athletes to Watch, by Paul Stevens

February 6: Previewing the Opening Ceremony, by Paul Stevens

The Opening Ceremony for the 25th Olympic Winter Games is set to be an unmissable occasion. In the year that it celebrates its 100th anniversary, Milan’s legendary 77,000-capacity San Siro Olympic Stadium will be illuminated from 8 p.m. local time (11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. GMT) on February 6 for a celebration of winter sports and the three core Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship.

This is a stadium that is home to Milanese rivals Inter and AC Milan, and has hosted FIFA World Cup matches, UEFA Champions League finals and international rugby matches for the Italian National Team. The atmosphere on Friday night will be just as electric during the athletes’ parade.

History will be made in more ways than one: the first Olympic Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities (Milan and Cortina) and the first time that the traditional athletes’ parade is spread across four separate locations for the first time (Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo).

The event will not only reflect Italy’s rich cultural history but also its vision for the future. That next chapter will be written tonight.

Olympic Flagbearers

Ten people from around the world, including athletes and individuals whose journeys embody the Olympic Movement’s principles of peace, unity and solidarity, have been selected as Olympic Flagbearers by the International Olympic Committee and Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026.

In keeping with the expanded footprint of these Olympic Winter Games across Northern Italy, the Olympic Flag will parade in two symbolic locations of the Games where the Opening Ceremony will take place: San Siro Olympic Stadium in Milan, accompanied by eight flagbearers, and in Cortina, with two flagbearers.

The Olympic Flagbearers in Milan will be:

• Tadatoshi Akiba (Japan), former mayor of Hiroshima who has pledged a global commitment to nuclear disarmament
• Rebeca Andrade (Brazil), the most decorated Olympian in Brazilian history and an active campaigner for women’s rights, sustainability and education
• Maryam Bukar Hassan (Nigeria), a UN Global Peace Advocate and an internationally acclaimed artist and poet
• Nicolò Govoni (Italy), a writer and activist who was nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to protecting refugee children
• Filippo Grandi (Italy), a former United Nations high commissioner for Refugees and vice-chair of the Olympic Refuge Foundation
• Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya), a five-time Olympian in long-distance running, two-time Olympic marathon champion and a UNESCO goodwill ambassador
• Cindy Ngamba, who made history at Paris 2024 as the first athlete from the Refugee Olympic Team to win an Olympic medal (bronze)
• Pita Taufatofua (Tonga), the first Tongan athlete to represent his country at the Olympic Summer and Winter Games, and a UNICEF Pacific ambassador

The Olympic Flagbearers in Cortina will be:

• Franco Nones, the first Italian Olympic champion in the history of cross-country skiing
• Martina Valcepina,  a three-time Olympic medalist in short track speed skating for Italy

Double Cauldrons

The lighting of the Olympic cauldron is a highlight of any Opening Ceremony, but fans have even more reason to get excited for tonight’s curtain-raiser as two bespoke cauldrons will be in public spaces and lit simultaneously — in Milan’s Arco della Pace and in Cortina d’Ampezzo’s Piazza Dibona.

With typical Italian finesse and style, we know that the cauldrons will include a sun-like structure with a geometric, interlacing shape symbolizing “the harmony between nature and human ingenuity.” Made of aeronautical aluminum, they have been designed to expand and contract, revealing and safeguarding the Olympic Flame inside a glass-and-metal container.

Nightly performances will be held at each location in which the cauldrons will activate throughout the Games for the viewing public to experience.

It is heavily rumored that Alberto Tomba, Italy’s most successful Olympic alpine skier, will be the final torchbearer for the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony in Milan. Now 59 and a premier ambassador for these Games, Tomba won three Olympic gold medals, two World Championships and nine World Cup season titles over a distinguished career, and all eyes will be on him for the culmination of tonight’s spectacle.

Athletes’ Parade

The expanded footprint of these events — including three separate clusters in the mountains, several hours from where the city activities will take place — makes this one of the most geographically dispersed Games to date. To account for these complexities, organizers have meticulously planned four ceremonies in which athletes will be able to walk in the Parade of Nations at each location.

While the main ceremony will be held in Milan’s San Siro, the others in the mountain areas (Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo) will seek to incorporate the ceremony in their own way to enhance the athlete experience. For the viewing audience, athletes from each country will be shown entering their individual venues at the same time.

“Imagine a fashion show where you have people coming in front,” said Marco Balich, the creative director for the show. “Our idea, our effort is focused on making that effort for when we come from Milano we’ll have a seamless broadcast passage from one location to the next. We, together with the Olympic Broadcast Service, have put a lot of effort to make sure this goes as smooth as possible, knowing we are in different locations.”

Live Performances

Organizers are pulling out all the stops to ensure that this Opening Ceremony will be an unforgettable, star-studded affair, featuring headline performers such as Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Chinese pianist Lang Lang and American singer Mariah Carey. The latter is even expected to sing live in Italian — a sure-fire way to warm up the crowd on a cold winter’s night.

Elsewhere, it has emerged that Golden Globe-winning singer-songwriter Laura Pausini, The White Lotus actress Sabrina Impacciatore, actor and producer Pierfrancesco Favino, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoi and Italian-Tunisian rapper Ghali will also participate in the celebrations in some guise.

The Olympic Theme

Expect a display of pomp and pageantry that showcases quintessential Italian heritage and cultural references from this Opening Ceremony.

Created by Balich Wonder Studio, the overall Ceremony has been built around the concept of “armonia — a deeply Italian value carrying a powerful and universal message of peace, unity and dialogue.” In total, some 1,300 performers, 1,200 volunteers and almost 3,000 athletes will contribute to the events taking place tonight across four locations.

Milan’s main event will last 2.5 hours, whereas the shows in the other three locations will be shorter and on smaller scales.

There will be more than a few allusions to Italian cultural icons throughout the event, including to Leonardo da Vinci and Christopher Columbus. The renowned fashion designer Giorgio Armani will also receive a posthumous tribute after his death last year — his longstanding connection to the Games came from designing the Italian team’s Olympic uniforms over many decades.

That being said, Balich is keen to ensure that the ceremony is not about technology or the spectacle alone. “It is about people, emotion and humanity. In a complex world, we want to offer a message of harmony, beauty and peace that can be understood by everyone.”

The latest edition of the Olympic Winter Games is almost here. And as Andrea Bocelli prepares to introduce “Season of Champions” — a new compilation featuring the iconic “Nessun Dorma,” it will be hard enough getting to sleep with the anticipation of 19 days of competition ahead of us.

Enjoy the show.