Italy welcomes Olympic flame ahead of Winter Games
Milano-Cortina Winter Games organisers received the Olympic flame on Thursday during a ceremony at Athens’ historic Panathenaic Stadium, marking the start of a 63-day torch relay across Italy ahead of the February Olympics.
Milano-Cortina Games chief Giovanni Malagò received the flame inside the marble-clad stadium, just over two months before the opening ceremony on February 6, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The handover event was scaled down due to heavy rain warnings, similar to the flame-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia last week.
“Italy is proud of its Olympic heritage … as we get ready to write the next chapter in our Olympic story,” Malagò said. Only a small number of officials and spectators attended the event due to weather restrictions on an overcast morning in Athens.
Italy, known as a winter sports powerhouse, last hosted the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006. “It will be an incredible 63-day adventure,” Malagò added. “After two decades of waiting, the Olympic flame is returning to Italy.”
Italian Olympic tennis doubles champion Jasmine Paolini was among the final torchbearers carrying the flame into the Panathenaic Stadium after a nine-day Greek relay that began on November 26 in Olympia.
Later on Thursday, the flame will arrive in Rome and officially start its domestic journey on December 6 from Stadio dei Marmi. The 12,000-kilometer relay will pass through all 20 Italian regions, 110 provinces, 60 cities, and 300 towns, involving 10,001 torchbearers.
The route includes iconic landmarks such as Rome’s Colosseum and Venice’s Grand Canal, while also visiting southern cities like Palermo and Naples to promote winter sports in regions where they are less popular.
The relay will reach Cortina d’Ampezzo on January 26—exactly 70 years after the 1956 Winter Games opened there—and conclude on February 6 at Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.
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