The Closing Ceremony for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics is now days away.
The official end to the Games, scheduled to take place this weekend, will take place inside an ancient Italian arena, hours away from both host cities. And, in addition to performances and a parade of athletes, two local medal winners were announced as the the U.S. flag bearers for the event.
Here’s what to know about the Closing Ceremony, and when the 2026 Olympics officially end.
When is the Closing Ceremony for the 2026 Olympics?
The Closing Ceremony is slated to begin at 1 p.m. CT Sunday. Coverage of the 2026 Olympics Closing Ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. CT on Feb. 22 on NBC, Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.
Where does the Closing Ceremony take place?
The final act of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will take place in Verona, in the Arena di Verona. The Ancient Roman arena was first built in A.D. 1, predating the larger Roman Colosseum by decades.
While the opening ceremony was held in Milan, the other host city, Cortina d’Ampezzo, nestled in the Dolomite mountains, was considered too small and remote to host the closing ceremony. Verona, in the same Veneto region as Cortina, was chosen for its unique venue and relatively central location, said Maria Laura Iascone, the local organizing committee’s head of ceremonies.
“Only Italians can use such monuments to do special events, so this is very unique, very rare,” Iascone said of the Arena.
What happens during the Closing Ceremony?
The ceremony will open with athletes parading triumphantly through Piazza Bra into the Arena, which once served as a stage for gladiator fights and hunts for exotic beasts.
The evening is expected to be more intimate than the opening ceremony in Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, with about 12,000 people attending the closing compared with more than 60,000 for the opening.
Iascone said about 1,500 of the nearly 3,000 athletes participating in the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history are expected to drive a little over an hour from Milan and between two and four hours from the six mountain venues.
“Beauty cannot be fixed in time. This ancient monument is beautiful if it is alive, if it continues to change,” said the ceremony’s producer, Alfredo Accatino. “This is what we want to narrate: An Italy that is changing, and also the beauty of movement, the beauty of sport and the beauty of nature.”
Who are the flag bearers?
Hilary Knight and Evan Bates were chosen as Team USA’s flag bearers, a fitting moment for the two medalists both in their fifth – and potentially last – Olympics.
Knight, a suburban Chicago native, scored the game-tying goal that sent the U.S. women’s hockey team into overtime in their final match against Canada Thursday. Team USA ultimately went on to win the gold.
Olympic figure skater Evan Bates, originally from Michigan was also chosen as a U.S. flag bearer.
He, alongside wife and skating partner Madison Chock, affectionately named by teammates “Mr. and Mrs. America,” scored a silver medal after falling short of the podium in their 2022 appearance. The duo skated one of the best performances of their career, but their second place finish was the source of controversy as many believed they should have won gold.
Who is performing at the Closing Ceremony?
Acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle has been rehearsing for the closing ceremony inside the Arena di Verona this week under a veil of secrecy, along with some 350 volunteers, for a spectacle titled “Beauty in Motion,” which frames beauty as something inherently dynamic.
Other headlining Italian artists include singer Achille Lauro and DJ Gabry Ponte, whose hits could be heard blasting from the Arena during rehearsals this week.
What else to know
The closing ceremony stage was inspired by a drop of water, meant to symbolically unite the Olympic mountain venues with the Po River Valley, where Milan and Verona are located, while serving as a reminder that the Winter Games are being reshaped by climate change.
Italy on Thursday named gold-medal winners Lisa Vittozzi and Davide Ghiotti to carry the Italian flag at the closing ceremony, bringing up the rear of the 92 nations.
Vittozzi took home Italy’s first individual gold medal in biathlon and won, coming back from an injury that sidelined her for all of last season. Ghiotti, from Veneto city in Vicenza, won the men’s pursuit speed skating gold medal along with Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti, beating the U.S. world record-holders and favorites.
One of the key moments of the ceremony is when the Olympic flag is handed over to the next Winter Games host nation, France. The French flag will then be raised next to Italy’s.
The ceremony will close with the Olympic flames being extinguished in Milan and Cortina, to be viewed via video link. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona to protect animals from being disturbed.
The Verona Arena will also be the venue for the Paralympic opening ceremony on March 6. For the ceremonies, the ancient Arena has been retrofitted with new wheelchair ramps and accessible restrooms along with other safety upgrades. The six Paralympic events will be held in Milan and Cortina until March 15.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/I6usteG
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