Major Lazer Joins Opera, Anthems and Fire at Arena di Verona as Milan Cortina Games Close
The Olympic closing ceremony at the Arena di Verona brought together pop, opera and spectacle as major lazer appeared alongside traditional anthems and fireworks to cap the Feb. 6–Feb. 22 Games. The convergence of music, medals and controversy matters now because the event closed two weeks of competition that awarded 116 sets of medals across 16 sports and sent the Olympic flame toward future hosts.
Major Lazer performance and live music with Calibro 35
Pop and live bands shared the Verona stage: Major Lazer performed in an upbeat portion of the ceremony while Italy’s alternative band Calibro 35 played live as the athletes entered together in one long throng. The tone shifted sharply from the opening’s spread-out format across Milan and Cortina; here, hundreds of athletes, coaches, staff, volunteers, journalists and fans drove winding mountain roads or took trains into Verona to be together in the Arena di Verona.
Arena di Verona’s ancient arches and modern theatrics
The ceremony married high art and spectacle inside a Roman amphitheater built roughly 2, 000 years ago, with stone arches dating back to the first century AD. The venue, which survived an earthquake in 1117 and a later period as a quarry before centuries of operas and concerts, staged opera characters, elaborate costumes, opera singing, acrobatics, dance and pyrotechnics. Fire and pop interludes alternated as the ceremonial flames were extinguished, signaling the close of the Games.
Medal finales: 50k cross-country podium and sweep by Norway
The closing program also included athletic ceremony: the grueling 50k cross-country skiing medals were presented on the Arena stage. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson won the women’s 50k gold after recovering from a two-fall, broken-ski performance the previous week. Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won the men’s 50k gold, completing a sweep of all six men’s cross-country events and setting a new all-time Winter Olympic gold medal record; Norway finished the Games with the most overall medals and the most golds, and took all three medals on the men’s 50k podium.
Hockey overtime and decisive moments on the final day
The Games’ final day also featured Team USA’s men’s hockey gold, the country’s first since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The U. S. victory came after a game that saw Canada control many scoring chances but was kept in check by goalie Connor Hellebuyck, and decided in overtime when Jack Hughes scored just over 90 seconds into the extra period.
Weather, scores and curling results
Weather affected events: a snowstorm postponed the freestyle skiing halfpipe final, yet Eileen Gu, the American-born athlete competing for China, won her second consecutive Olympic gold in the women’s halfpipe after pulling out of her first run and posting scores of 94. 00 in Run 2 and 94. 75 in Run 3. In curling, the U. S. women fell to Canada in the bronze-medal game, while Sweden beat Switzerland 6-5 for the men’s gold and had earlier taken gold in mixed doubles.
IOC actions, a banned helmet and closing remarks by Kirsty Coventry
The International Olympic Committee and its president, Kirsty Coventry, were at the center of a controversy that shadowed parts of the Games: the IOC disallowed Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladsylav Heraskevych from competing with a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s invasion because of IOC rules prohibiting political statements during competition. Coventry closed the Games with remarks intended to strike a tone of unity and sentimentality, praising athletes for showing “what excellence, respect and friendship look like in a world that often forgets these values” and calling the Games “a place for everyone. ”
What makes this notable is the way the ceremony threaded together ancient architecture, modern pop performance and athletic finales into a single night that both celebrated winners and highlighted persistent political friction.
The television transition from ceremony coverage moved quickly to promotion of future hosts: NBC cut from the closing broadcast into a presentation for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles that included a Kate Hudson rendition of “California Dreamin’, ” while attention also turned toward France as host for 2030. The Games ran from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22, and were available on NBC with streaming on Peacock.
On the Arena floor, athletes relaxed into a looser mood after competition: one German athlete entered lifted overhead by a teammate, Latvian athletes performed a synchronized dance spinning one another, and multiple members of Team USA carried teammates on their shoulders — images that underscored the ceremonial, communal close of the Milan Cortina Olympics.
