The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games are already in progress following a colourful opening ceremony divided into four areas.

The main location was the legendary San Siro stadium in Milan, and some parts of the event were held in Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo.

Although a multi-location ceremony was viewed as a logistically difficult task, it was a great show that was carried out without difficulties.

Two Olympic cauldrons were fired up – one in Milan and the other in Cortina – as tenor Italian singer Andrea Bocelli sang a hearty Nessun Dorma as the torch glimpsed the San Siro.

That was an ecstatic conclusion to the parade of the athletes, as the Italian side was the last to be presented before the massive applause in all four venues.

The bobsledder Brad Hall and figure skater Lilah Fear were the flagbearers of Great Britain in Cortina and Milan, respectively.

The Ukrainian athletes were the only ones who received a warm welcome, as Team USA were also cheered up to their ears.

Negative crowds and boos, however, when the US vice-president JD Vance appeared on the big screen, and negative reactions in the crowd against the Israel and Georgia teams as well.

The show by the creative director Marco Balich, which preceded the parade, was founded on the principle of unity, connection, agreement, i.e. armonia, and the narrative was expected to tie the territories, people and values together in a common vision.

It included a section titled “Italian Beauty” and “Fantasia” with a tribute to a fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who was aged 91 when he died in 2025.

In the meantime, the American singer Mariah Carey – among the most successful women artists in the world – was dressed in a glittering white dress as she sang a version of Volare.

The president of the organising committee of Milan-Cortina 2026, Giovanni Malago, said: “We are ready to present Olympic history again with the help of our values that make us all one, what is excellence, friendship and respect.”

The ability of this country to produce such a complex project has been vividly witnessed in terms of the coordination of so many different bodies in the pursuit of a single dream.

“I have never felt as proud as an Italian tonight as I feel tonight.”

The Games had to be opened by International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry.

It is also the first time that the Olympics are being formally inaugurated by a woman, as the first female IOC president.

“This is the reason we all like the Games. Since you are the cause of our seeing the very best of ourselves,” she said to the athletes.

“We have been reminded by you that we may be brave. That we can be kind. We can rise again; however, we may fall.”

“The Olympic Games spirit has nothing to do with sport only. It is all about us – and us being human.”

“This is the magic of the Olympic Games, as it gives us all the motivation to be the best that we can be, collectively.”

Although curling, figure skating and ice hockey have already commenced, the Games will have the first five gold medals won on Saturday.