The Opening Ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games kicks off at San Siro. The stadium, in its swansong before being demolished, is sold out: 67,000 tickets for the event were sold, the best ever for a Winter Olympics.

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Malagò: "Italian beauty is energy."

"Italian beauty doesn't belong to us, it has been entrusted to us by history as a responsibility: it is more than an aesthetic value, it is an energy." Thus stated the president of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, Giovanni Malagò , in his official speech delivered this evening at the San Siro Stadium. "We are ready to write a new page in Olympic history, inspired by the values that unite us all: excellence, friendship, and respect. What awaits us over the next two weeks is a pioneering edition."

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Ovation for Italy

Arianna Fontana and Federico Pellegrino, the Italian flag bearers, were greeted by the roar of the San Siro crowd to the tune of "The Barber of Seville. " The applause from the stands also included that of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, jumped for joy. Celebrations also erupted in Cortina, where Federica Brignone paraded on the shoulders of Amos Mosaner, the other flag bearer.

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The parade of delegations

End of part one: the athletes, the stars of the Milan-Cortina Olympics, parade through the San Siro Stadium. The first to cross the Meazza stadium in the traditional parade of participating nations are the Greek athletes, followed by Italy. Above them, the five golden Olympic rings tower, and the stadium is illuminated with a thousand blue lights.

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Mattarella arrives by tram

Mattarella on a tram at the Olympics: the President of the Republic's surprise entrance is the highlight of the opening ceremony of Milan Cortina 2026. The film features the President of the Republic seated like an ordinary citizen, on a tram where ordinary citizens, but also special passengers, get on and off: the orchestra of La Scala and athletes on skis. For this film, which inaugurated the Olympics, the narrative was low-key, with a warm, familiar atmosphere and a touch of presidential self-irony. But it's nothing like the spectacular footage from previous Olympics. Tram number 26 (a clear reference to the year of the Games) takes a nighttime route through an almost enchanted Milan, passing the city's most iconic landmarks. Inside, the President of the Republic is seen interacting with two little girls who have dropped an Olympic mascot (which he picks up from the floor), before getting off at the Stadio Meazza stop, the terminus of the route. When Mattarella alighted, he noticed that the tram had been driven by a very special driver: Valentino Rossi, in his perfect tram driver's uniform. With a farewell to the multiple world motorcycle champion, the journey of this truly special tram concluded. Mattarella entered the stadium, ready to take his seat in the stands alongside IOC President Kirsty Coventry.  

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Feminine ceremony

The stars of the show are primarily female artists, hailing from the worlds of music, film, and even science . Performing at the stadium are pop star Mariah Carey (singing "Nel blu dipinto di blu"), singer Laura Pausini (singing the Italian national anthem), opera singer Cecilia Bartoli, and actresses Matilda De Angelis and Sabrina Impacciatore . And then there's Charlize Theron , UN Ambassador for Peace, who speaks with a message of hope inspired by Nelson Mandela that crosses borders and generations. The actress is originally from South Africa. Also featured is Samantha Cristoforetti , astronaut for the European Space Agency and the first Italian woman to join the crew of the International Space Station. Cristoforetti brings a luminous sun to the stage that symbolically lights up the firmament.

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A tribute to Italian beauty

A tribute to Italian beauty and to the sculptor Antonio Canova, the greatest exponent of Neoclassicism and a key figure in the construction of an idea of beauty that influenced Western art worldwide, unfolds. The stadium becomes a living museum, and a constellation of display cases has appeared on the pitch, housing 70 dancers from the Teatro alla Scala Academy, men and women as still as statues, suspended in a timeless dimension. At center stage, inside one of the display cases, a duet begins: the tale of Cupid and Psyche, one of Antonio Canova's most famous works, performed by dancers Claudio Coviello and Antonella Albano.

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The ceremony in the name of harmony

Harmony is the guiding concept behind the entire opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics, curated by creative director Marco Balich . For the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, the event is being hosted by two cities, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, with a narrative thread uniting the city and the mountains. "Harmony is also a universal message," explain the organizers, "a call for peace, dialogue, and the ability to build connections in a fragmented world." The San Siro stadium is the scenic heart of Armonia, the point from which the narrative of the widespread ceremony radiates. At the center of the stage stands a circle, a tribute to Milan, which began as a circular city, founded in Roman times as Mediolanum and developed over time through successive rings of walls and urban rings. Around the central circle are four ramps that create trajectories that ideally connect Milan to Livigno, Predazzo, and Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Olympic venues.

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(Unioneonline/D)

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