Milan Cortina 2026, Valentino Rossi special driver for President Mattarella

A decidedly special moment characterized the first stage of the opening ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026: the audience at the Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium (this is how the Meazza was renamed for these Winter Olympic Games) erupted into unexpected applause when the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella appeared on the big screens, framed as he traveled on one of Milan&#8217s historic streetcars, driven for the occasion by one of the symbols of Italian sports, Valentino Rossi.

The choice of the streetcar, one of the most recognizable symbols of the Lombard capital, symbolizes the everyday while the presence of Rossi, a global icon of sports, adds a touch of irony, the kind that has made the ‘Dottore’famous in addition to his successes on the track, transforming the arrival of the Head of State into a narrative moment in its own right. Mattarella was then framed in the stands, greeted by applause from the more than 70,000 in attendance, just before, on the stage set up for the occasion, Laura Pausini sang the national anthem.

Milano Cortina 2026 is the first Winter Olympics in history to open with a polycentric ceremony, capable of uniting Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Val di Fiemme in a single narrative, while having San Siro as the heart of the evening. Italy returns to host the Winter Games twenty’years after Turin 2006, while Cortina d’Ampezzo, specifically, rediscovers the Olympic atmosphere seventy years after the 1956 edition: a double anniversary that gives the evening an even stronger symbolic value.

The ceremony was designed by the Italian government and the Italian government.

The ceremony has been designed to alternate spectacle and storytelling, with a stage set-up capable of transforming San Siro into a three-dimensional stage and enhancing world sport, which will be represented by more than 2,900 athletes from 92 countries. Italy is present with 196 athletes, 103 men and 93 women.

An international cast will be on stage: from Mariah Carey to Andrea Bocelli, from Laura Pausini to Pierfrancesco Favino and Sabrina Impacciatore, all committed to building a narrative designed to alnernate emotion, irony and spectacularity, without taking too much space away from the athletes’ parade and the lighting of the braziers.