The Olympics were returning to a nation that last hosted the sports spectacle 20 years ago. This, though, is the most spread-out Winter Games in history, with competition venues dotting an area of about 8,500 square miles (more than 22,000 square kilometers), roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey.
Aside from San Siro, which opened a century ago and is home to Serie A soccer titans AC Milan and Inter Milan but is due to be razed and replaced in the next few years, athletes were slated to march in three other places, some carrying their country’s flag: Cortina d’Ampezzo in the heart of the Dolomite mountains; Livigno in the Alps; Predazzo in the autonomous province of Trento.
That allowed up-in-the-mountains sports such as Alpine skiing, bobsled, curling and snowboarding to be represented in the Parade of Nations without requiring folks to make the several-hours-long trek to Milan, the country’s financial capital.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Barry contributed to this report.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics