21 February 2022
Italy is officially the next host country for the Winter Games
Milano Cortina 2026 is on the way. The Olympic flag, those five emblematic rings representing values, opportunities, and human and sporting endeavours, is in Malpensa. The countdown to the Italian Games has begun, four intense years of hard teamwork, with our hearts still full of emotions and dreaming of what we saw at the closing ceremony for Beijing 2022.
Milano Cortina 2026 has taken the baton from Beijing 2022, officially becoming the next host country of the Winter Olympics. The Olympic flag was lowered at the National Stadium in Beijing. After flying it, the city's mayor, Chen Jining, handed it to the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, who then gave it to the mayors of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo: Giuseppe Sala and Gianpietro Ghedina.
The next day, onboard a commercial plane with the current Italian delegation that participated in the Winter Olympics, the flag arrived from Beijing to Malpensa, kept in a beautiful display case with plaques from previous years.
On the Olympic plane were, to name a few, the president of CONI and the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, Giovanni Malagò; the executive director of Milano Cortina 2026, Vincenzo Novari; the artistic director of the Flag Handover Ceremony, Marco Balich; the singer Malika Ayane, who sang the Mameli Anthem during the Closing Ceremony in Beijing 2022; the president of FISI, Flavio Roda; and the president of FISG, Andrea Gios.
Champions Arianna Fontana, Francesca Lollobrigida, Federica Brignone, and curling Olympic champion Amos Mosaner also accompanied the flag on their way home.
