VERONA, Italy — The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo came to a close Sunday night with a vibrant ceremony held inside the ancient Verona Arena, marking the end of 17 days of competition and the debut of ski mountaineering as an Olympic sport. The twin flames, representing the co-host cities, were extinguished as part of the ceremony, bringing an end to what International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry hailed as a “fresh kind of winter games.”
Coventry told local organizers they had “set a new, very high standard for the future,” according to the IOC. The Games featured 116 medal events across eight sports and 16 disciplines. The closing ceremony itself was a celebration of Italian culture, showcasing everything from lyric opera to contemporary Italian pop music, culminating in a performance by DJ Gabry Ponte that drew the approximately 1,500 athletes to their feet.
Earlier in the evening, athletes paraded into the arena waving national flags, accompanied by a medley of 20th-century Italian pop hits. The Canadian Olympic Committee reported that around 90 of Canada’s 207 athletes participated in the closing ceremony, with speedskaters Valérie Maltais and Steven Dubois carrying the Canadian flag.
The ceremony opened with a theatrical tribute to Italian opera, featuring characters from operas like Madama Butterfly and Aida being “unpacked” from crates within the Arena’s tunnels. Performers mingled with athletes serving as flag-bearers, some of whom captured the moment on their phones.
A key moment of the ceremony involved Italian gold medallists from the 1994 Lillehammer Games carrying the Olympic flame, encased in a Venetian glass vessel, into the Arena. The Olympic rings were illuminated as the flame was raised in the centre of the stage.
This marked the first Olympic Games for Kirsty Coventry, a two-time Olympic swimming champion, who attended the ceremony alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The Games spanned a vast geographical area of 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 square miles), stretching from Milan to the Austrian and Swiss borders and presented a logistical challenge in staging events across multiple venues.
The IOC has indicated that this geographically dispersed model will be continued for future Games, aiming to avoid the substantial costs associated with constructing new facilities. The 2030 Winter Games, to be held in the French Alps, will similarly utilize venues spread across the region, including locations in Nice on the Mediterranean Sea, and will see speedskating events held at a yet-to-be-determined venue outside of France.
The closing ceremony concluded with the extinguishing of the Olympic flames in both Milan and Cortina, a moment viewed in Verona via video link. A light show replaced traditional fireworks to avoid disturbing local wildlife. The Milan Cortina Paralympics are scheduled to commence on March 6th in the Verona Arena and will continue until March 15th.
