CORTINA D’AMPEZZO (BELLUNO) – The snow child. There could not have been a more symbolic presence, for the opening of the Games which were laboriously spread out in terms of transport, than the 11-year-old who was taken off the bus because he did not have an Olympic ticket and returned home after walking in the freezing cold for six kilometres. Here is little Riccardo, behind the mountain choir singing the Mameli anthem from the center of Cortina d’Ampezzo, in perfect sync with Laura Pausini from the San Siro stadium in Milan, dressed in white on stage next to the historic cross-country skiers Pietro Piller Cottrer, Fulvio Valbusa and Giorgio Di Centa. Hard-working people achieving victory: this is the message broadcast worldwide from the Dolomite insert of the television ceremony.
THE SCREENPLAY
An evening of celebration for the Queen, which began an hour before the live broadcast with the parade of local associations and continued with the crowd packed behind the barriers, also lining up the Musical Corps and the Ampezzo Sestieri. In the script of the event, Corso Italia becomes a narrative axis and a crossing space, while Piazza Angelo Dibona is transformed into a place of convergence and symbolic recognition. The parade of athletes sees around a thousand of them pass under the circle positioned near the town hall: they are the national teams of alpine skiing, curling, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, with the addition of the biathlon competing in Anterselva. The flag bearers of Italy are the skier Federica Brignone and the curler Amos Mosaner, she on his shoulders, for the tricolor closing of the 92 delegations. Holding up the Olympic banner are Franco Nones (glory of cross-country skiing) and Martina Valcepina (national short track team). While the five hoops are hoisted, the Olympic anthem resonates together in Cortina and Milan.
THE PROMISE
However, the solemn moment of the oath is entirely Cortina, which in Cortina in 1956 saw the fateful formula pronounced for the first time by a woman, the skier Giuliana Minuzzo Chenal. Seventy years later, the honor belongs to two athletes, two coaches and two judges: the curler Stefania Constantini and the luge player Dominik Fischnaller, the coaches Elisabetta Biavaschi of alpine skiing and Maurizio Marchetto of figure skating, the referees of the latter two disciplines Gabriele Toldo and Raffaella Locatelli. «On behalf of all the competitors, I promise that I will take part in these Olympic Games respecting and observing the rules that govern them», declare the six chosen ones in the scene drawn in the sign of the circle, the emblem of unity.
THE AUTHORITIES
Among the politicians attending the event, there are the deputy governor Lucas Pavanetto, the undersecretary Luca De Carlo, the former parliamentarian Roger De Menech, the former minister Federico D’Incà, all also guests of the aperitif offered at the Cortina Dolomiti Lounge by the Foundation chaired by Stefano Longo. «Is the main show in Milan? Instead, for me it is a source of pride and an honor to be here in Cortina, because we have all worked so hard for this moment”, states the prefect Antonello Roccoberton. Roberto Padrin, president of the Province, is at the head of the 60 mayors of Belluno: «We are here to celebrate a miracle, achieved by a small town of six thousand souls before the eyes of the world». The vocabulary is spiritual, but the appointment is secular. «However, even in this opening ceremony we can grasp some Christian values such as loyalty, friendship and peace: after having observed the negativities, it is time to look at the positivities of these Games», comments Don Ivano Brambilla. The parish priest welcomed Father Johannes Lackner, chaplain of the Austrian national team who arrived from Kitzbühel to Cortina, into the rectory with a wish: «I would like to meet Kristian Ghedina, I was just a child when he did that split on the Streif…». Who knows then, as the banner in the center says, the dream will come true. When it is already night, the fire burns in the brazier next to the iconic bell tower: wasn’t this also a mirage?
date:2026-02-08 19:09:00