Host Italy to have unprecedented 4 flag bearers at Milan-Cortina Olympics opening ceremonies

ROME (AP) — Host nation Italy is going to really spread around the honors at the upcoming Milan-Cortina Olympics with an unprecedented four flag bearers for the opening ceremonies.

While the main opening is slated for the San Siro soccer stadium in Milan on Feb. 6, there will also be a smaller event that Friday evening in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

“There will be two flag bearers in Milan and simultaneously two in Cortina,” Italian Olympic Committee president Luciano Buonfiglio told RAI state radio on Monday.

Buonfiglio added that there will be male and female flag bearers in each locale, and that International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry signed off on the idea during a recent meeting in Switzerland.

Buonfiglio did not announce the names of the flag bearers yet, adding that he needed to confer with various sports federations and committee officials first.

The Olympic flame will be lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece, on Nov. 26.

The flame will arrive in Rome on Dec. 4 and will begin its journey across Italy two days later.

Two cauldrons

For the first time, there will be two Olympic cauldrons: One in Milan at the Arco della Pace — a triumphant arch built downtown in the 19th century — and one in Cortina’s central Piazza Dibona.

It will mark the second time for a cauldron in Cortina, 70 years after the Alpine village hosted the 1956 Winter Games.

The 2026 games will be held across a vast swath of northern Italy with multiple venue clusters. On the opening night, there will also be ceremonies and athlete parades in Predazzo and Livigno.

Russia and Israel

Buonfiglio said that he was “surprised” by the International Paralympic Committee’s recent decision to lift the partial suspensions of Russia and Belarus, “because the Olympics and the Paralympics (usually) travel in the same direction.

“I’m not saying it’s right or it’s wrong,” Buonfiglio added. “I’m saying that the way it was handled deserved more respect and should have been communicated more effectively.”

The Milan-Cortina Paralympics will be held in March.

The IOC confirmed that it will follow the system it used at the Paris Games last year, allowing Russians to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes — using the French acronym AIN.

Russia and ally Belarus were banned from international sporting events after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“We all want sports to remain separate from politics,” Buonfiglio said, days after millions of Italians took to the streets in pro-Palestinian protests that also approached the country’s national soccer team training center. “We’re seeing what’s happening in Gaza. … But we will respect the rules. Italy respects the rules.”

The IOC said recently that it has never discussed banning Israel.

Buonfiglio was elected in June to succeed the outgoing CONI president, Giovanni Malagò, who still leads the Milan-Cortina organizing committee.

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