Friday, February 6, 2026 is the XXV Winter Games 2026 Opening Ceremony
The Winter Games is from February 6th to February 22nd. The Opening Ceremony is at Milan’s San Siro stadium, and the athletes will walk through Predazzo, Livigno, and Cortino d’Amprezzo. There will be two cauldrons, which will be lit and extinguished at the same time, but each will be located at different areas—Arco della Pace in Milan and Piazza Dibona in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The opening ceremony will air on February 6th, at 11 AM, pacific time zone. Since I was watching a 1988 Italian film, Cinema Paradiso, on the independent channel, I missed the first forty minutes of the ceremony. When I changed the channel to NBC, the Greece athletes were walking out onto the stadium. But I noticed there will be an encore performance of the opening ceremony at 8 PM. I will watch the 8 PM opening ceremony to recap this world event.
Snoop Dogg is working this event, interviewing athletes in Milan, Italy. The theme is about harmony between city, mountains, and culture. There is a dance performance, where dancers, dressed in all white, and one dancer had white wings, resembling angels bringing peace on earth.
A paparazzi chases down a woman, dressed in a glamorous gown, and she appears to be a conductor. Three men with huge heads walk around the scene. Dancers in black and white modern art outfits look like sculptures in an art museum. Three huge paint tubes in red, blue, and yellow pour down color sheets to the floor. Colorful characters about art and culture fill the center stage, and this center stage has a maze-like MK-Ultra design. Dancers in yellow and black perform. All the dancers on the stage perform in an unorthodox and chaotic party.
Dressed in a white and silver gown with a white, fluffy and long boa or coat, Mariah Carey sings in Italian and English. In English, she sings ‘Nothing is Impossible.’ Models, dressed in monochromatic Gorgio Armani suits, whether monochromatic white, green or red suits, assimilate the colors of the Italian flag. A model, dressed in a white gown, walks out with a folded Italian flag, which is passed to a soldier and other people, before it is given to three female soldiers. The Italian national anthem is played while Laura Pausini sings and the Italian flag is raised on its flagpole.
A violinist performs background music while dancers perform a duality story about city and nature coming together into one. Two large rings come together and down to the center stage. One person stands inside each ring, before the rings rise upwards, and the two dancers inside the ring perform aerial poses as they move downwards together, without the rings, indicating unity and oneness. The five Olympic rings are formed and connected together. Fireworks come out of the rings.
The Milan Cathedral, located at the Piazza del Duomo, in Milan, Italy, where the square is often filled with many cute pigeons, is now crowded with many people. In Milan, I noticed snow on the ground and huge gold ring portal doorways at certain areas, where the Parade of Athletes started walking through these rings toward the swirly MK-Ultra design on the center stage. Greece started the succession, followed by Albania, Andorra, Saudia Arabia, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Canada, Czechia, Chile, China, Cyprus, Colombia, South Korea, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, Great Britain, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Hong Kong—China, India, Iran, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, USA, France, and Italy.
An Italian actress hangs out with two characters, before she turns into an animated character, skiing through an animated scene to celebrate 100 years of Winter Olympics. Back on the center stage, dancers perform in a sport and style theme, with neon lights of a cassette-player billboard and other neon-light eighties items in the background. Dancers continued to perform on the swirly, maze-like MK-Ultra design on the center stage.
Dressed in a black gown, an Italian actress/comedian performs mime of Italian hand gestures, before exclaiming “Welcome to Italy!”
After the President of the IOC and the President of the Italian Committee make their speeches, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, declares the opening of the Winter Olympics 2026 in Milan. Andrea Bocelli sings an opera song, which brings many people to tears. Two athletes carry a lighted torch as Andrea sings. They pass the torch to a female athlete, and she passes the torch to a male athlete.
An Italian Rapper, Ghali, performs A Call for Peace, while dancers perform in a cartoon-like costume. All these dancers piled on top of each other to form a human pyramid of dancers, and one dancer stands on top. Then, dancers lay on the center stage in a dove outline form.
Dressed in a black gown with cutouts, Charlize Theron walks out and makes her speech about peace, referencing Nelson Mandela’s speech about peace and a call for peace everywhere.
Chinese pianist, Lang Lang, plays on a white piano while Cecelia Bartolli, an Italian Opera Singer, sings in Italian, as the Olympic flag is raised on its flagpole.
A young girl admires the solar system model of a bright sun and planets.
Dancers perform on the center stage. Eight dancers have neon light disc, while all the other dancers had a gold disc.
Two female athletes with the lighted torch pass it to a male athlete. At Cortina, the second location for the second cauldron, an older male athlete walks with the lighted torch, walking through the huge ring portal doorway, and he passes the torch to a female athlete. In Milan, the male athlete hands the lighted torch to two athletes. Their platform suddenly rises high enough until they are able to light the circular wreath-like design cauldron. The other cauldron is also lighted. Fireworks go off and red light fills the scene, illuminating the area in bright red and orange hues. I also notice that the sphere-like cauldron has an upside-down star design.
Not mentioned in the opening ceremony was the demonstration at Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci, where many students protested against the presence of the ICE members during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026. Many students carried posters which read, “ICE OUT” and “FUCK ICE.” The words, “FUCK ICE,” was also sprayed on a wall. But this protest was peaceful.
