The theme just announced for next February’s Opening Ceremonies for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy? Harmony, as in bringing together what will be the most spread-out Olympics ever.
So what will that look like when the next Winter Games start on Feb. 6, 2026?
Well, the traditional parade of athletes behind their national flag will take place not just in Milan’s San Siro Olympic Stadium, but also more than 200 miles away in Cortina as well as in the Valtellina and Val di Fiemme regions where venues are also located.
Other Opening Ceremonies elements, including the lighting of the Olympic cauldron from a flame arriving via a torch relay, will happen next year at both Milan’s Arco della Pace or “Arch of Peace,” and Cortina’s Piazza Dibona, a public square named for a mountaineer.
“For the first time, the name of our Games includes two cities, which means we have to hold the most significant moments twice,” Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milan-Cortina organizing committee, said.
Typically watched by billions around the world, the ceremonies are set to feature a tribute to the late Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, along with a performance by actress and singer Matilda De Angelis, the first talent involved, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.
“We are charting a new course,” Maria Laura Iascone, the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies director, said. “As Italians, we are innovators of a new spirit of ceremonies. We will tell the world what we can do, our ability to create beauty and excitement.”
The event will also showcase what sets the Milan-Cortina Games apart.
The next Olympics are the first to have two official hosts, Milan, Italy’s second-largest city, and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Dolomite ski resort where the 1956 Winter Olympics were held. The Games also sprawl across much of northern Italy, requiring six athlete villages.
Italy’s Olympic organizers were even ready to hold bobsled, luge and skeleton competitions across an ocean, in Lake Placid, New York, if a new Italian sliding track built against the advice of the International Olympic Committee hadn’t gotten finished.
“These Games will not follow a traditional path. Instead, they are designed to stretch across regions, connecting multiple cities in a way no Olympic Winter Games have before,” an Olympics.com post declared.
Last year, the 2024 Summer Games in Paris used boats to transport athletes on the Seine River to a temporary Opening Ceremonies stadium by the Eiffel Tower. Much of the evening’s entertainment, including a segment that sparked controversy, was outside the stadium.
And the next Olympics in the United States, the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, will use two stadiums for Opening Ceremonies, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
But don’t expect a big break with tradition at the Opening Ceremonies for Utah’s 2034 Winter Games.
Just like at the 2002 Winter Games, the Opening Ceremonies for the state’s next Olympics are expected to be held in the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, near student housing being used as the sole athlete village.