2026 Winter Olympics flame handed to Milan-Cortina organizers

ATHENS — The flame for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was handed to the host city organizers on Thursday in an Athens ceremony for a two-month torch relay in Italy before the Games open on February 6. "Today marks a magical moment for all of us," Giovanni Malago, president of the Milan-Cortina organizing committee, said at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were revived in 1896. A storm forecast forced Greek organizers to shorten the ceremony and cancel the planned attendance of thousands of schoolchildren. Similar changes were necessary on November 26 in ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Games in 776 BC, where a backup flame was used for the official lighting ceremony. Following a nine-day torch relay around Greece, the flame was kept the previous night at the Acropolis in Athens. It heads to Rome on Thursday for a 63-day, 12,000-kilometer course through Italy's major cities, the Colosseum in Rome and the archaeological site of Pompeii. The Winter Olympics take place from February 6 to 22 with the Paralympic Winter Games following from March 6 to 15. As witWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times