Italy received the Olympic flame to kick off the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Thursday during a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, ahead of a 63-day torch relay.
Due to warnings of heavy rain, the lighting of the flames at ancient Olympia last week was a small-scale event, as reported by the Reuters.
Giovanni Malago, organizer of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, was presented with the flame in the huge, marble-clad stadium. This ceremony took place two months before the main event on February 6, 2026.
According to Malago, accompanied by a handful of officials, “Italy is proud of its Olympic heritage… as we prepare to write the next chapter in our Olympic story.”
“It will be an incredible 63-day adventure. After 20 years of waiting, the Olympic flame returns to Italy,” he added.
As a winter sports powerhouse, Italy last hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006, with the Turin Games.
Jasmine Paolini, Italian Olympic tennis doubles champion, was the final torchbearer to carry the flame into the stadium, ending the nine-day Greek relay.
The flame begins its journey to Rome on Thursday. On December 6, it will begin a 12,000km Italian relay, starting at the city’s Stadio dei Marmi.
The domestic tour will be conducted by 10,001 torchbearers and aims to visit every city in Italy, visiting all 20 regions, 60 cities, 110 provinces and 300 towns.
The flame will arrive in Cortina D’Ampezzo on January 26 and the relay will end on February 6, 2026 at the San Siro stadium in Milan.
