Hellenic Olympic Committee President Isidoros Kouvelos, backside left, offers the torch to Milano Cortina Organizing Committee President Giovanni Malago, backside proper, in the course of the Olympic flame handover ceremony at a stadium in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Thursday. AP-Yonhap
ATHENS — The flame for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was handed to the host metropolis organizers on Thursday in an Athens ceremony for a two-month torch relay in Italy earlier than the Video games open on February 6.
“Right this moment marks a magical second for all of us,” Giovanni Malago, president of the Milan-Cortina organizing committee, mentioned on the Panathenaic Stadium, the place the primary trendy Olympics have been revived in 1896.
A storm forecast pressured Greek organizers to shorten the ceremony and cancel the deliberate attendance of 1000’s of schoolchildren.
Related modifications have been needed on November 26 in historic Olympia, birthplace of the Video games in 776 BC, the place a backup flame was used for the official lighting ceremony.
Following a nine-day torch relay round Greece, the flame was saved the earlier evening on the Acropolis in Athens.
It heads to Rome on Thursday for a 63-day, 12,000-kilometer course by way of Italy’s main cities, the Colosseum in Rome and the archaeological website of Pompeii.
The Winter Olympics happen from February 6 to 22 with the Paralympic Winter Video games following from March 6 to fifteen.
As with many previous Olympics, Athens 2004 amongst them, the Video games are experiencing some delays to the development of venues.
A number one Worldwide Ski Federation (FIS) official this week mentioned the physique was involved about delays on the website for the snowboarding and freestyle snowboarding occasions.
The Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and Nationwide Hockey League (NHL) have additionally expressed considerations about delays within the building of the Video games’ principal ice hockey enviornment.
Native organizers insist the venues might be prepared in time.
