Olympic Closing Ceremony in Verona Ends Milan Cortina Games, Flags Passed to France
The olympic closing ceremony unfolded in Verona’s ancient Arena, where the twin flames in co-host cities Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were extinguished and the Olympic flag was handed to France — setting the spotlight on the 2030 Games and the Paralympics that begin March 6 in the same city.
Olympic Closing Ceremony staged in Verona's ancient Arena
The 2½-hour show in the Roman amphitheater opened with a whimsical tribute to Italian lyric opera and closed with a pop and dance send-off. The ceremony featured opera characters — Madama Butterfly in bright pink and green and Aida in golden tiers — unpacked from mirrored crates while 17th-century musicians played "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from La Traviata, a nod to the Arena's long history as a summer opera festival.
Stage director roused the cast, including Achille Lauro, and opera characters led by the jester Rigoletto spilled into the piazza where flag-bearing athletes filmed the scene with their phones. Internationally acclaimed ballet dancer Roberto Bolle made his first-ever aerial performance inside a blazing ring meant to represent the sun, lowered to a stage that mimicked the Venetian lagoon with gondolas and dancing to a song by Joan Thiele.
DJ Gabry Ponte got about 1, 500 athletes on their feet while color confetti exploded on stage. Achille Lauro delivered the final note with the song "Incoscienti Giovani" before the athletes filed out. The olympic closing ceremony also included a moment when the Olympic flame, encased in a Venetian glass vessel, was carried into the Arena by Italian gold medalists from the 1994 Lillehammer Games; the provided context then ends with the fragment "The Olympic rin" and it is unclear in the provided context how that sentence concluded.
Italy's record haul and Team USA's medal total
Host Italy finished with its highest Winter Olympic tally ever: 30 medals — 10 gold, six silver and 14 bronze — eclipsing the previous record of 20 set at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. Giovanni Malagò, president of the Milan Cortina Foundation, told Italian athletes wearing headbands emblazoned with "Italia, " "Your outstanding performance united Italians everywhere and played a fundamental role in the success of the games. "
Team USA left the Games with 33 medals. In a related competitive note, P. K. Subban discusses the impact of Sidney Crosby's absence after Canada's gold medal loss to Team USA. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway became the most decorated gold medalist in a single Winter Olympics with six wins at Milan Cortina; Klæbo, who served as Norway's flag bearer in the closing ceremony, said he had been iffy about competing because of a sore throat but decided to race and "to perform at the highest level. " He won every race he started in these Games and added, "I'm super satisfied for sure, but I'm also super tired. "
Events, disciplines and the handover to France
The Games featured 116 medal events across eight Olympic sports and 16 disciplines over 17 days of competition, including the debut of ski mountaineering. With the final events wrapping up just hours before the ceremony, the 50-kilometer mass start men's and women's cross-country medals were awarded inside the Arena by International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry, who declared the 2026 Games over and told local organizers they "delivered a new kind of winter Games and you set a new, very high standard for the future. "
The Olympic flag was officially handed to France. The next Winter Games will be staged in neighboring France, with events planned in the Alps and Nice on the Mediterranean Sea, while speedskating will be held either in Italy or the Netherlands.
Paralympics set for March 6 and the road ahead
Verona will host the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games on March 6, when the Arena will transform once more. Organizers said they invested 20 million euros to "enhance accessibility throughout Verona, ensuring an inclusive experience for all. " The Paralympic theme will be "Life in Motion, " which the Olympics website describes as "a tribute to life as change and transformation, inspired by the language of art and its unique ability to interpret the ever-changing contemporary reality. " The website added that it is "an approach that redefines the concept of disability through a new harmony between people and environment. "
Edgar Grospiron, president of the organizing committee for the 2030 French Alps Winter Olympics, said at a news conference, "We know we have little time. There's little time, little money because of financial constraints, but we know we can do it, " and pledged to follow the recommendations and choices that will be made by the IOC. Broadly looking ahead, Mike Tirico noted the next major international Games on the horizon are the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, which are set to be the biggest Summer Olympics ever.
The next confirmed milestone in Verona's calendar is the Paralympic opening ceremony on March 6.
