Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics opens Friday with international performances

The 2026 Winter Olympics will open Friday in Milan-Cortina, Italy, with the opening ceremony scheduled for 20:00 at San Siro stadium.

The ceremony will feature several international musical performances. Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, and Laura Pausini are among the stars confirmed to perform at the event.

The Winter Olympics began as the “Winter Sports Week” in 1925, when it officially acquired Olympic status. The first Winter Games took place in Chamonix in 1924, featuring early gold medalists including American Jewtraw and Austrian Szabo-Plank.

Since those inaugural Games, the Winter Olympics have been held in numerous locations across Europe, North America, and Asia. The competition has visited cities including St. Moritz, Lake Placid, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Oslo, Cortina, Squaw Valley, Innsbruck, Grenoble, Sapporo, Sarajevo, Calgary, Albertville, Lillehammer, Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin, Vancouver, Sochi, PyeongChang, and Beijing. The 2022 Winter Games took place in Beijing before returning to Italy for the Milan-Cortina edition.

The Milan-Cortina Games represent the second time Italy has hosted the Winter Olympics, with the previous edition held in Turin in 2006. The event will take place under snowy conditions in the Cortina region.