The opening ceremony of the 25th Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina will begin at 20 pm tonight at the historic San Siro stadium. It will last until February 22, and the competitions will mainly be hosted by the famous ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Along with the parade of the 93rd national team, a tenor will sing at the opening ceremony Andrea Boceli, To Laura Pausini, and with them an American woman Mariah CareyItalian culture will also be presented before the President of Italy Sergio Matarella open ZOI.
The organizers of the Olympic Games have tried to hide who will have the honor of lighting the Olympic flame, but Italian media claim that everything is already known. It will be the skiing legends from the "boot" - Alberto Tomba i Deborah Companions, writes “Gazeta delo Sport”.
Tomba will bring the Olympic torch to the “Arco della Pace” near “San Siro”, while Compagnoni will perform the honor in the Dolomites at “Piazza Dibona” in Cortina. Thus, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, the opening ceremony will be held in two places - in Milan and Cortina. The torch will not be carried by the Games ambassador, the tennis player Janik Siner, because he decided to travel to the ATP 500 tournament in Doha, after losing the title at the Grand Slam in Melbourne.
Like all major events, the Winter Olympics in Italy are facing numerous problems, with Milanese residents already in trouble over security measures on public transport, and complaining about ticket prices. They start at 30 euros, but rise sharply for the opening ceremony, reaching 260 euros, while for some premium competitions they cost as much as 2.000 euros per ticket.
"We don't have tickets for the games, the prices were high and the website was confusing," she told Reuters. Erika Bonfanti, hiking guide.
Organizers deny that it is expensive, as a fifth of tickets are under 40 euros, and 57 percent can be purchased for under 100 euros. The city of Milan will also install a giant screen in the fans' village in Piazza del Canone. What, however, delights the citizens of Milan is the cleanliness:
"The Olympics are the Olympics, long live sport! Just look how clean everything is. Milan has never been this clean," said a local resident Marida Bianca.
Although Russia is not allowed to participate, some athletes from that country compete under the flags of other countries, and in some sports they have neutral status. Thus, the appearance of a figure skating icon, Eteri Tutberidze, who will be the coach of the competitors from Georgia.
- WADA did not accredit Tutberidze, that is not our decision - protested the president of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Vitold Bank.
His request was however rejected by the Figure Skating Federation, as there was no evidence that Tutberidze was involved in the doping scandal. Kamile Valijeve, who amazed the world with a quadruple somersault at just 15 years old, but also later tested positive for the banned trimetazidine, from a doping test taken shortly before the start of the previous Games in 2022.
The Montenegrin team will be in the parade of 93 countries. For the fifth time in a row, Montenegro will be part of the Winter Olympics, and our country's representatives are Branislav Pekovic in alpine skiing and Aleksandar Grbović in Nordic skiing. Peković had the honor of carrying the Montenegrin flag at the opening ceremony. Our country first appeared at the Winter Games in 2010 in Vancouver.
2.885
Athletes from 93 countries have registered to participate in the Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina. This is slightly more than the number of participants at the previous Games in Beijing (2.871).
195
Medals will be awarded to competitors competing in 116 medal events, across eight sports and 16 disciplines.
Bonus video:
