Not only will the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games be the most spread-out in history, so will the Feb. 6 opening ceremony, organizers said Thursday.
The Parade of Nations will feature athletes led by the national flagbearers not only in Milan’s San Siro Stadium, which will be packed with 60,000 spectators, but also, for the first time in Olympic history, in three other locations: the mountain venues of Cortina, Predazzo and Livigno.
Olympic events are scheduled from Feb. 6-22 in venues spanning the Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto, as well as the autonomous provinces of Alto Adige and Trentino, with many hours of driving between them. The diffusion of the Parade of Nations will allow athletes from all disciplines, no matter how far-flung, to participate, organizers told a news conference.
"The Opening Ceremony is the entrance way, an invitation," said Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milan-Cortina organizing committee. While each nation has its favorite sporting events, "the only moment that is truly for everyone is the Opening Ceremony. It is the moment that defines that edition of the Games, in their spirit."
Biathlon athletes competing in Anterselva, on the Austrian border, will be able to participate in nearby Cortina, in the Dolomites of Veneto, while men’s alpine skiers competing in Lombardy’s Bormio near Switzerland can join the parade in Livigno, where snowboarding and freestyle skiing events will be held, just 45 minutes away.
Each nation is allotted two flagbearers, and they can appear in two different venues. Italy, as host, will have four flagbearers, two men and two women.
Similarly, the Olympic flame will burn in two locations: The Arco della Pace in central Milan, and in Cortina’s main Piazza Dibona. The design of the caldrons has yet to be revealed.
Organizers said the concept for the Opening Ceremony will be “Harmony,’’ representing the duality of the urban and mountain venues for these games, as well as an appeal in a moment of enormous global tensions.
"If I can achieve that, and send a strong message of peace, I think we that we will achieve our goal," said Marco Balich, the Italian producer of both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies — his 16th Olympics and Paralympics as either producer or creative director.
Headliners will be named later, but organizers announced a moment of tribute for the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died Sept. 4 at the age of 91.
Armani designed the Olympic and Paralympic uniforms for the Italian national team for decades, and was a personal friend of the former president of the Italian National Olympic Committee, Giovanni Malagò.
"The ceremony speaks of harmony, it speaks of beauty, it speaks of design, it speaks of Italian style," said Malagò, who is now president of the local organizing committee. "There will be a moment of emotion, and even a standing ovation, in gratitude, for Giorgio Armani."
The opening ceremony will put a spotlight on San Siro Stadium, which is home to Inter Milan and AC Milan soccer clubs. It is set to be torn down and replaced by a new teams-owned stadium.
"It’s an icon of the city. It is very important that in its history San Siro will have also hosted an Olympic Ceremony, which not many stadiums in the world have done," Varnier said.
