MILAN — Four locations, one Olympic heartbeat.
For the first time in Olympic Games history, Friday’s opening ceremony unfolded across multiple locations, all in northern Italy, the culmination of more than 700 hours of rehearsal and 1,200 performers from ages 10 to 70 officially enshrining a month-long sports festival that will capture worldwide attention.
In the San Siro Stadium in Milan as well as the town center in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the snowboard and freestyle skiing venue in Livigno and the ski jumping stadium in Predazzo, Italy celebrated “Armonia,” a narrative designed to unite territories, people and values with a shared vision. The sentiment at San Siro carried a breathtakingly cinematic artistic show highlighting the host country, including a torch relay performance by tenor Andrea Bocelli and culminating with the lighting of two cauldrons in the two main host cities, Milan and Cortina.
Athletes from each country participated in the ceremony from whichever venue was closest to where they will compete, another first that eliminated potential logistical travel nightmares and celebratory fatigue. Instead, it was presented as the embodiment of another key principle of armonia: building connections in an often fragmented world.
On a night where nationalism was on full display, Ukraine’s athlete contingent drew considerable applause from the Milan crowd, who were each given light up wristbands to make the stadium glow. The United States athletes, a large group led by speedskater Erin Jackson also got a rousing welcome, though vice president JD Vance — who was in attendance with his wife, Usha — received a smattering of boos when shown on the video board.
The French and their athletes were another crowd favorite, though unsurprisingly nothing topped the Italians. Wearing black jackets with red, white and green on the cuffs and white winter hats with “Italia” emblazoned on the front, Italy had by far the biggest group of athletes and were followed on stage by a few dozen Olympic volunteers, who danced along and sent the crowd — celebrating its first Italian Olympics since Turin in 2006 — to its feet.
In the first Winter Olympics with fans in eight years because of pandemic restrictions, Italian president Sergio Mattarella spoke of uniting values, friendship and respect, and said this year’s Games are “the most gender balanced ever.”
Speaking in Italian with three different subtitles shown on video boards throughout the stadium, Mattarella – who received rousing ovations – reminded the crowd that sports are a universal language and “unity is possible.” The message resonated all night, from the symbolic lines creating a circle as the main stage to the actress and U.N. ambassador Charlize Theron delivering a message of peace from her South Africa compatriot Nelson Mandela.
The Milan ceremony started with a video tribute to Italian beauty and the 18th century sculptor Antonio Canova, followed by 70 ballet dancers clad in white and surrounded by large ancient Roman statues. The dance morphed into a kaleidoscope of colors, with giant blue, red and yellow paint tubes spilling out the corresponding color fabric at the feet of clusters of dancers. Those dancers also paid homage to a trio of opera maestros — Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Gioachino Rossini — who each represented a distinct era of Italian music.
The performers surrounded acclaimed pop artist Mariah Carey, who donned an all-white Fausto Puglisi dress while she sang Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu” and “Nothing is Impossible.”
Materalla being shown in the grandstand kicked off the formal portion of the ceremony which included singer-songwriter Laura Pausini singing the national anthem. As the crowd lit up in Italy’s colors, the country had performers representing the mountains and the city to show the harmony between them.
Aerial actors perform during the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro Stadium. The theme of the night was “harmony.” (Matthias Hangst / Getty Images)
Two giant gold rings, containing one performer each, rose from the ceiling and the pair joined in midair. The rings began to multiply until they joined together into the iconic Olympic rings to set up the parade of athletes.
Beginning with Greece, athletes entered through a giant lit-up gold ring on the ground. They walked behind their respective flag bearers and a placard with the country’s name on the main stage, designed to look like a block of ice. Five large televisions showed the other three ceremonies simultaneously.
The U.S. entered ahead of only France and Italy – the last and current Olympic hosts. The Americans across the ceremonies were decked out in the same festive Ralph Lauren outfits, which included a winter-white wool coat with heritage inspired wooden toggles (Jackson was the only deviation in navy), an American flag intarsia wool turtleneck and tailored wool trousers. Athletes also wore red, white and blue hats, mittens, a leather belt and brown suede boots with red laces.
After Mattarella’s speech, International Olympic committee president Kirsty Coventry took the podium before Mattarella officially declared the Games open from the stands.
When the flames were lit, the final torchbearers in Milan were the celebrated Alpine skiers Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni. In Cortina, the spherical floating hearth was lit by another Alpine star, Sofia Goggia.
The cauldrons’ intricate design pays homage to the knotted designs of Leonardo da Vinci, and both will remain accessible to the public throughout the Games.
In Cortina, a small-town parade feel
For several hours Friday night, spectators, volunteers, and other visitors gathered around the main square next to the Basilica dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo trying to figure out what actually was going to happen in the northeastern capital of these Olympics — and the site of the entire Winter Games in 1956.
There was nothing that screamed big event other than a light increase in security and some extra barricades. Around 6:30 p.m., 90 minutes before the start of the actual opening ceremony, the sort of parade that happens in countless towns on one holiday or another began.
Members of about two dozen local Cortina organizations tromped up the Corso Italia to a smattering of cheers. There was a clump of marchers in Krampus costumes. There was a band. It was all sort of sweet. Then a D.J. appeared.
Finally, at 8 p.m., the actual opening ceremony started to beam in from Milan. The town square in Cortina remained kind of dead. It was another half-hour before something local happened — the raising of the Italian flag.
The American athlete contingent walks along the Corso Italia in Cortina d’Ampezzo during Friday’s opening ceremony. (Mattia Ozbot / Getty Images)
Then, just before 9, the simultaneous marching of athletes got underway. It was an awfully nice attempt to include athletes from all locations in what organizers decided to call the first “widespread Olympics.” But most teams for the Winter Games are small to begin with.
When they are divided four ways, they get really small, especially when athletes with competitions over the weekend decide to rest and take a pass. And with that, the Olympic opening ceremony, one of the grandest events the modern world stages, evolved into a collection of high school homecoming parades.
Also, since nations are only allowed at most two flagbearers — one man and one woman — most countries in Cortina marched with only a sign rather than a flag. That was a miss. Flags make the Olympics.
It was a good effort, there were likely a couple thousand people lining the streets and filling the square. It was a beautiful night in a beautiful city, and maybe it worked on television. In person, it all felt a bit small.
In Livigno, solo athletes get a moment to shine
Maybe 2,000 or so gathered at the base of the Livigno Snow Park’s four courses — snowboard cross, slopestyle, parallel giant slalom and big air — with the park’s steep halfpipe lit up and looking over the crowd.
Walking under a single Olympic ring extending above the base of the parallel giant slalom course, large packs of Aussies, Austrians, Canadians, Americans and, finally, Italians, drew cheers from fans sprawled out in front of them.
The more jarring view was that of the individual athletes making solo appearances in these Games, entering a stage of such scale armed with only a sign, a flag, and perhaps a guest or two.
There was Kenyan Alpine skier Issa Gachingiri Laborde Dit Pere, the son of a French ski patrol rescuer and a Kenyan mother. Before making the walk in Livigno, the 18-year-old said, “A wave of pride comes over, just thinking about where my mom comes from.”
Kenya’s Issa Gachingiri Laborde Dit Pere is one of several lone representatives of their country at these Winter Olympics. (Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images)
There was Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda, the lone entry in these Games from the East African nation of Eritrea, who appeared in two previous Olympics and nearly retired at age 29 before changing his mind and returning to training 10 months ago.
Four the fourth time, Muhammad Karim, who grew up determined to ski in the Karakoram mountains and learned on wooden planks made by his uncle, arrived at an opening ceremony carrying the Pakistani flag.
Of the single arrivals in Livigno, none drew a bigger cheer than Rafael Mini. The 17-year-old might sound very Italian. Mini, competing in slalom and giant slalom events, hails from San Marino, the second-smallest independent microstate in Italy, one covering only 25 square miles of the Apennine Mountains.
No Olympian from Vatican City was introduced at any point in the night.
Matthew Futterman in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Brendan Quinn in Livigno contributed reporting.