The Games have already begun, but for many viewers around the world, the Milan Cortina Olympics won’t truly be underway until Friday’s opening ceremonies.
You may be asking yourself, “Ceremonies? Plural?” Yes, you read that correctly.
As always, the festivities will include the massive Parade of Nations, featuring representatives and athletes from all 92 teams competing at the games. However, for the first time, the participants will not congregate in a single place for their moments in the spotlight. This iteration of the parade will be spread across four locations. That’s because the Milan Cortina games, as implied by the event’s name, will span multiple Northern Italy locales, featuring the largest geographic footprint in Olympic history at more than 22,000 square kilometres — roughly 10,000 square miles.
The sites hosting the opening parade flagbearers and marchers are:
• San Siro Stadium in Milan
• Cortina d’Ampezzo city centre in Cortina
• Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium in Predazzo
• Livigno Snow Park in Livigno
No disrespect to the other three locations, but San Siro Stadium will be the focal point for people watching at home. The historic home of Inter Milan and AC Milan will host an expected 60,000 spectators for its chunk of the ceremony. Mariah Carey, Laura Pausini and (of course) Andrea Bocelli are among the musical headliners already announced for opening night, but organizers haven’t said who will appear where. Still, it’s a safe bet that the biggest crowd will get to see some of the biggest names.
There is some logistical basis for Italy’s approach beyond being able to say it was the “first” to do things this way. With the venues for the Games being so far apart, some athletes are hours away from each other. Making everyone converge in one spot, especially while some preliminary events are already underway, would be disruptive for the athletes competing earlier in the day on Friday or getting up early to compete the next morning. Instead, the host nation is keeping people where they need to be while attempting to sprinkle some opening ceremony grandeur across the Alps.
Speedskater Erin Jackson will be one of Team USA’s two flagbearers on Friday. Jackson became the first Black woman to win an individual Winter Olympic gold medal in 2022. (Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images)
Each team can have two flagbearers, allowing them to appear in two different venues. Italy will have four flagbearers, with one in each of the locations, because it’s the host nation.
Spoiler alert: Greece will lead the parade. It always does. The full lineup of nations and the order they will appear is available here.
This will also be the first Olympics to feature two Olympic cauldrons. One cauldron will be at the Arco della Pace in Milan, with the other in Cortina’s Piazza Dibona, which organizers describe as the mountain town’s “emotional centre.” The Olympic flames will be lit simultaneously.
You may be thinking, “Hey, there’s only one Olympic torch. They can’t possibly light two cauldrons with the same torch in two places.” You’d be right on the second part, but the first part is a bit off. While there is a singular Olympic torch, there are also backup torches lit in Greece at the beginning of the relay. These are lit in case the main torch, for whatever reason, is extinguished.
The “real” torch passed through Cortina on Jan. 29, but some of that original Greek fire is still burning there and will be used in the dual lighting once the “real” torch reaches Milan on Friday.
That’s nice. How do I watch it?
The Opening Ceremonies begin at 8 p.m. CET (or 2 p.m. ET for those in the U.S.). Here are some of the international broadcasters covering the event:
• United States: NBC Olympics, Peacock
• Canada: CBC, Bell Media, Rogers Media
• United Kingdom: Warner Bros Discovery (Discovery+, TNT Sports), BBC Sport
• Australia: Nine
• Brazil: TV Globo, CazéTV
• Pan Europe: Warner Bros Discovery (HBO Max, Eurosport), national EBU broadcasters
• France: Warner Bros Discovery, France TV
• Germany: Warner Bros Discovery, ARD, ZDF
• Italy: Warner Bros Discovery, RAI
• Japan: Japan Consortium (NHK, JBA, Fuji TV, Nippon TV, TBS, TV Asahi, TV Tokyo)
• Netherlands: Warner Bros Discovery, NOS
• New Zealand: Sky
• People’s Republic of China: China Media Group (CCTV, Yangshipin)
• Republic of Korea: JTBC, Naver
• Switzerland: Warner Bros Discovery, SRF, RTS, RSI
Pita Taufatofua has gone viral multiple times for walking shirtless and shiny while serving as Tonga’s flagbearer, as he did alongside Malia Paseka at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. (Hannah McKay / Getty Images)
Is that famously oiled-up Tongan guy going to be a flagbearer again?
Yes, Tongan cross-country skier, Taekwondo fighter and canoe racer Pita Taufatofua will carry his nation’s flag during the opening ceremony for the fourth time. Taufatofua previously had the honor at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Boxer Aki Epenisa took over for the 2024 Paris Olympics because Taufatofua did not qualify to compete in those games. This time, Taufatofua will reclaim his flagpole.