Feb 24, 2026
3 min read
The 2026 Winter Olympics ended when the twin flames were extinguished in the co-host cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo during the closing ceremony in the ancient Verona Arena.
VERONA, Italy - The Milan Cortina Games came to an end on Sunday as the two lights in the host cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo went out during the closing ceremony inside the old Verona Arena, located among the mountains, valleys and stadiums of the city that made the games the most winter sports.
When International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry declared the 2026 Games over, she told local organizers that they had "delivered a new kind of Winter Games and you have set a new, very high standard for the future".
The next Winter Games will be held in neighboring France, which was formally awarded the Olympic flag first.Following the same dispersed model, the 2030 Winter Games will hold events in the Alps and Nice on the Mediterranean, while speed skating will be held in Italy or the Netherlands.
A total of 116 medals were won in eight Olympic sports in 16 disciplines, including this year's first ski mountaineering, during the 17 days of competition.With the finals finishing just hours before the ceremony, Coventry awarded the men's and women's cross country medals at the Arena, kicking off the 50km mass.
Host Italy won the most Winter Olympics ever with 30 medals -- 10 gold, 6 silver and 14 bronze, breaking the previous record of 20 at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
"Your great honor united Italians everywhere and played a primary role in the success of the Games," Iohannes Malago, president of Milan's Cortina Foundation, told the Italian players, who sat behind wearing crowns emblazoned with "Italy."
The closing ceremony paid tribute to Italian dance and music, from lyric opera to 20th-century Italian pop to DJs by Gabry Ponte, who got 1,500 athletes on their feet and dancing as colorful confetti exploded on stage.Italy's Achille Lauro had the last word with the song "Incoscienti Giovani", or reckless youth, before the athletes who used their energy so skillfully were introduced.youth for these Games.
The 2.5-hour ceremony opened with a unique tribute to the Italian lyric opera, which not only surprised the actors of the closing ceremony, including Achille Lauro, but also the dormant opera players sitting in coffins inside the tunnel of the amphitheater.
On stage, Madama Butterfly in a bright pink and green dress and Aida on a golden stage are revealed in cases seen as 17th-century singers singing "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from "La Traviata," a nod to the Arena's long history as a summer opera festival venue.
Led by Rigoletto, the showman, the opera characters spilled out onto the square outside, mingling with angry athletes waving their countries' flags, some pulling out their phones to film.
In a later sequence, world-famous dancer Roberto Bolle performed his first aerial performance inside a burning ring intended to represent the sun.He was lowered onto a stage imitating the gondola-filled Venetian lagoon, where he danced to a haunting song by Italian singer Joan Thiele.
In an important moment, the Olympic flame placed in a Venetian glass container was brought into the stadium by the Italian gold medalists from the 1994 Lillehammer Games.High on the stone steps behind the stage, the Olympic rings were seen illuminated in white, with national flags, while one raised a flame in the middle of the stage.
It was Coventry's first Olympic appearance for the two-time Olympic swimming champion, who watched much of the ceremony alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni.
12,000 spectators joined athletes and officials for the opening ceremony, which was more intimate than Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli's opening ceremony at Milan's San Siro stadium, which drew more than 60,000 people.
The Cortina Games in Milan cover an area of 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 sq mi), from ice sports in Milan to biathlon in Anterselva on the Austrian border, snowboarding and men's downhill in Valtellina on the Swiss border, cross-country skiing in Val d'Iscana and nordic skiing, north of women's skiing.Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The closing ceremony ended with the Olympic flames being extinguished in the unprecedented two cauldrons of Milan and Cortina, which were watched in Verona via video link.A light show replaced fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona, to protect the animals from disturbance.
The opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Paralympics will also be held at the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the Games will continue until March 15.
