The Parade of Nations is an Olympic highlight so Italy says, let’s have 4

NEW YORK – At the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies on Feb 6, athletes will march in the traditional Parade of Nations at the San Siro stadium in Milan. But they will also be parading elsewhere in Italy, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Predazzo and Livigno. This geographically expansive Olympics will be just as spread out for the opening festivities.

Milan is the first named host of the Milano-Cortina Winter Games. But while the city has the facilities to host indoor events like figure skating and ice hockey, it has a conspicuous absence of high mountains.

That brings in Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the Italian Dolomites, over 240km to the north-east, where skiers will head down the slopes, and bobsleighers and lugers will glide and slide.

Both places will have Olympic cauldrons that will be lit during the opening ceremonies.

But not all the events will be held in those two regions. Livigno and Bormio, both more than 160km from Milan by car in the Italian Alps, will host snowboarding and the new Olympic sport of ski mountaineering. Predazzo and Tesero, roughly 200km away, will host ski jumping and cross-country skiing.

The issue is not just geography; it is facilities. The organisers were eager not to sink into a financial morass by building numerous new arenas and tracks, instead mostly re-using existing venues. And there just are not luge tracks in every town.

Olympic organisers say this is the first time the opening ceremony will be divided across four cities. The main ceremony will take place in the San Siro, the largest stadium in Italy. It is home of football giants Inter Milan and AC Milan and is celebrating its 100th birthday in 2026.

A highlight of any Olympics is the Parade of Nations, as athletes, coaches and officials in uniform march into the main stadium behind their country’s flag. This time, though, it will be the Parades of Nations.

Athletes will parade in the city centre of Cortina d’Ampezzo, at the ski jumping stadium in Predazzo and at the snowboard and freestyle skiing site in Livigno. Although the bulk of the performances and pomp will be at the San Siro, “satellite events and symbolic moments” will be held in the other locations, organisers say.

Carrying a flag is a high honour often given to athletic superstars and national heroes.

At these Games, each nation will get two flag bearers who can share flag-carrying duties at the same location or be at two different locations. Italy, as host, will get four flag carriers.

Why four parades? Most of the competitors are staying in or near the places they will compete. And quite a few will be starting their events on Feb 7 and Feb 8. Asking them to haul to Milan and back seems too much.

And after all the skating, skiing and curling are done, the closing ceremony will be held in yet another city in northern Italy – Verona, in order to take advantage of its 2,000-year-old amphitheatre.

NYTIMES