There are events that don’t just mark a date on the sports calendar, but become pages
of national history. Appointments that condense years of preparation, individual sacrifices and
collective vision, restoring to a country the most authentic image of itself.
With the closure of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, Italian Traditions launches a report
special dedicated to one of the most significant events in recent Italian history: not just one
great sporting event, but a tale of excellence, identity and system capacity. In
These lines will not only follow the medal report or the competition report.
We will tell what Milan-Cortina represented for Italy: a moment of maturity
sporting, organizational and cultural, capable of projecting the country to the center of the international scene,
in the wake of a tradition that finds one of its highest expressions in sport. When the curtain falls
falls on a major sporting event, not only the number of medals or the ranking is measured
final: you evaluate what that appointment meant for an entire country.
The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games concluded with Italy taking center stage
world championship, delivering a test of extraordinary excellence that was not only athletic, but also
cultural and symbolic for our national community. From February 6th to 22nd, on the slopes, on the slopes of
ice and in the Alpine valleys between Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige, the blue expedition
he won 30 medals — including 10 golds, 6 silvers and 14 bronzes — finishing in fourth place
in the medal table behind Norway, the United States and the Netherlands, but ahead of many historic powers of the
winter sport.
A performance that marks the historic record for Italian medals in a winter Olympics,
surpassing the previous record set in Lillehammer 1994, and confirming how winter sports do not
be more of a niche, but a mature and competitive reality in the Italian sports scene.
Among the protagonists of this extraordinary journey is Arianna Fontana, who with her experience
legendary added medals to her already incredible collection, becoming the most Italian athlete
medalist in Olympic history; then the combination of successes of Francesca Lollobrigida, capable
to win double gold in speed skating; not forgetting the podiums achieved by athletes such as
Riccardo Lorello in skating and Martino Carollo in cross-country skiing.
«It was an indescribable emotion», said the Italian flag bearer Davide Ghiotto during the
closing ceremony, as the Italian audience erupted in applause that crossed the
Alps to the final ceremony in Verona, where music, dance and cultural celebration have
accompanied by the extinguishing of the Olympic braziers.
Milan-Cortina 2026 wasn’t just a sporting celebration: it confirmed a tradition
Italian of excellence, preparation, sporting maturation and organizational ability. Athletes
grown up in a system that has been able to combine technical training, innate passion and high resources
level have given birth to an edition of the Olympics that will remain in the annals.
In tre decenni di viaggi tra grandi eventi sportivi, ho visto nazioni conquistare titoli e poi sparire
nell’oblio della stagione successiva. Quello che l’Italia ha compiuto a Milano-Cortina 2026 è
un’altra cosa: è costruzione di tradizione. Non si tratta solo di mettere medaglie in bacheca, ma di
creare continuità culturale tra sport, società e comunità. La risposta collettiva degli azzurri —
uomini e donne — ha mostrato un’Italia capace di competere con le migliori, senza timori
riverenziali, con fiducia e carattere. E se il quarto posto nel medagliere è il dato ufficiale, la vera
misura del successo sta nella memoria collettiva che queste gare lasceranno alle nuove generazioni.
Milano-Cortina ha narrato una nazione che non si accontenta di partecipare, ma sceglie di dettare
ritmo, qualità e storia per darne un esempio simbolico di determinazione come si è sempre distinta
la nostra Nazione.
MILAN-CORTINA 2026, THE FINAL ACT – ITALY TELLS ITS STORY AT THE ARENA IN
VERONA
The closure of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games did not seek the effect
spectacular end in itself. He chose, rather, the narrative. A narrative entrusted to the light,
to music and movement, set in one of the most symbolic places of Italian culture:
the Verona Arena, the first UNESCO World Heritage monument to host an Olympic ceremony.
For over two hours, the Roman amphitheatre transformed into an immersive stage, where water,
images and sound have built a continuous narrative of the country. An ideal journey that united the
Alps to the sea, passing through the Venice Lagoon, without ever losing the common thread: Italy as
cultural landscape in motion.
On stage, symbolic figures embodied this vision. Benedetta’s stage presence
Porcaroli, the absolute lightness of Roberto Bolle, capable of transforming space into pure gesture, and the
The unmistakable timbre of Paolo Fresu’s trumpet marked the most intense moments of the evening.
A measured balance between emotion and sobriety, culminating in a musical surprise that has
preceded the Italian Anthem, greeted by a participatory silence before the applause.
The show, conceived and created by Filmmaster with the artistic direction of Alfredo Accatino, has
chosen a sustainable and technologically advanced staging: over 10,000 LEDs integrated into the
parterre, wooden sets, stage solutions designed to reduce environmental impact. A
visual language that has demonstrated how innovation and respect for heritage can coexist.
Opera music, the heart of the Arena’s identity for over a century, has been the common thread throughout
ceremony. Not as a nostalgic quote, but as a living language, capable of dialogue with the
contemporary dance, photography and technology. From the initial “story” dedicated to the work
Italian up to the choreographies that animated the Arenian space, the Olympic closing has
returned an Italy aware of its history and ready to reinterpret it.
With the extinguishing of the last brazier, Milan-Cortina 2026 has delivered to the world
a clear image: that of a country that knows how to host, organize and compete, but above all
to tell each other. Not through emphasis, but through the depth of its cultural languages.
The Olympic Order seals the success of Milan-Cortina: the IOC’s recognition of the
Italian institutions.
If the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena represented the cultural and symbolic face of
Milan-Cortina 2026, the recognition awarded by the International Olympic Committee has
certified the institutional and political weight.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the Golden Olympic Order, the highest
honor of the body, to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and to the President of the
Giorgia Meloni’s recommendation for the decisive support offered to the Games
Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry expressed in an official statement words of
“deep gratitude” for the commitment guaranteed by the Italian institutions, underlining how the
success of the event was made possible by effective collaboration between the Government, bodies
territorial and national sports system.
This is not a formal recognition. The Golden Olympic Order is rarely awarded and
marks a precise step: the international certification of an organizational model capable of
combine safety, infrastructure, sustainability and sports quality.
Alongside the Head of State and the Premier, the IOC awarded the Silver Olympic Order to
numerous key figures in the organization: ministers, local administrators, top management
Milan-Cortina Foundation and institutional representatives involved in the organizational machinery. A
extended recognition that underlines how Milano-Cortina was not the success of a single
actor, but the result of a complex and coordinated institutional architecture.
During the closing press conference, CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio defined
the 2026 edition “extraordinary and historic”, announcing that the sporting results will ideally be
dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic. A passage that places the Games within a
broader framework: that of national memory.
President Mattarella’s presence not only at the inaugural ceremony, but also at various sites in
race, was read as a sign of concrete closeness to Italian sport. In this sense, Milan-
Cortina 2026 represented a rare moment of institutional cohesion, in which sport and the State have
walked in the same direction.
In the wake of our reportage, this recognition ideally closes the circle: from businesses
of the athletes on the slopes and on the ice, up to the sports diplomacy that accompanied the event.
Milan-Cortina 2026 wasn’t just a competition. It was a statement of reliability and
maturity of the Country System before the world.