International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Kirsty Coventry fought back tears on Wednesday as she urged nations to rally behind unity at the 2026 Winter Games, moments after the Olympic torch relay began its journey from ancient Olympia, Greece.
Speaking at the Olympia archaeological museum, Coventry – the first woman to lead the Olympic movement – grew emotional as she reflected on the power of sport to bring the world together.
“I wasn’t supposed to get emotional, but this place is very special,” she said, drawing warm applause.
“In a divided world, the Games hold a truly symbolic place,” she added. “It is our duty, our responsibility, to ensure that athletes from around the globe can come together peacefully.”
The Zimbabwean former Olympic gold medalist often stepped away from her prepared remarks, highlighting her personal connection to the Olympic spirit and the moment’s significance.
The torch was carried initially by Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis and then jointly with Italian cross-country skiing champion Stefania Belmondo as the relay began the countdown to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, which will open on Feb. 6.
The pair ran from the museum to the grove in Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Games, where the heart of modern Olympics founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, is kept, and handed over the torch to Italian luge great Armin Zoeggeler.
The flame ceremony was flanked by sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, the patron god of the ancient Olympics.
The ceremony to light the Olympic flame is usually held among the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, near the stadium where the Olympics were born in 776 B.C.
But a rainy weather forecast – which proved mistaken – raised concerns that the sun’s rays would not be able to sufficiently heat the parabolic mirror used by actresses dressed as ancient priestesses to light the flame.
That forced organizers to head indoors for Wednesday’s ceremony, where they used a flame lit on Monday during an outdoor rehearsal under the sun.
Following a Dec. 4 handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympics were revived in 1896, the flame will head to Rome for a 63-day, 12,000-kilometer (7,500-mile) course through Italy’s major cities and the archaeological site of Pompeii.
“The Milano Cortina torch relay will respect our shared classical heritage, passing through Rome’s imperial monuments, Pompeii, the Appian Way and regions of Magna Graecia, creating a story of continuity between ancient Greece, ancient Rome and modern Olympism,” said Giovanni Malagò, president of the Organizing Committee for Milano-Cortina.
The Games themselves will take place at various venues spanning a vast area from Milan to the Dolomite mountains in Italy’s northeast.
Ice sports will be held in Milan, while Bormio and Cortina will host alpine skiing.
Across the Dolomites, the biathlon will be in Anterselva and Nordic skiing in Val di Fiemme, with Livigno in the Italian Alps hosting snowboarding and freestyle skiing.
The Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 6-15.
Even though the outdoor events are at sufficiently high altitude, organizers of the Milan-Cortina Games are stockpiling artificial snow, just in case.
The 2026 organizing committee has said it plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of artificial snow, which will require 948,000 cubic meters of water.
Italy is the European country that uses the most artificial snow, with more than 90% of its ski slopes relying on snowmaking systems, according to an April report from the Italian environmental group Legambiente.
According to a December 2024 study published in the International Journal of Climatology, snow cover in the Italian Alps has decreased by half in the past 100 years.
