Milan Cortina 2026, Jasmine Paolini will bring the Olympic flame to Italy
It will be Jasmine Paolini who will carry the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic flame from Greece to Italy. The current No. 8 in women’s tennis, Olympic gold medalist in doubles at Paris 2024 along with Sara Errani, will be at the center of the moments that will sanction the passing of the flame from the country where both the ancient and modern Games were born to the one that will host the winter edition.
On Dec. 4, Jasmine will be torchbearer in Athens, during the Handing Over Ceremony, along with Olympic champion in track cycling team pursuit Filippo Ganna, and will then accompany the flame to Rome. The ceremony of handing over the flame to Italy will be held at the Panathinaiko Stadium at 11 a.m. Athens time, 10 a.m. in Italy, next Thursday.
Paolini will take part in the’last fraction of the Greek relay, flanked by Ganna, who at the Summer Games, in addition to winning gold in Tokyo 2020, was silver in the road time trial and bronze in the team pursuit in Paris 2024. The nine-day Hellenic relay will conclude with Greek water polo player Elena Xenaki lighting the Olympic cauldron, along with her national teammates.
There will follow the official passing of the flashlight from the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Isidoros Kouvelos, to Giovanni Malagò, president of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Foundation and until last June president of the Italian National Olympic Committee. The flame will arrive in Italy aboard an ITA Airways flight, scheduled to land at 5 p.m. at ’Leonardo da Vinci’ airport in Rome Fiumicino, and it will be Paolini, stepping down from the plane’s ladder, who will carry the torch onto Italian soil.
