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The Olympic flame for the Cortina Winter Games in Milan was officially handed over to Italian organizers on Thursday at the marble stadium in central Athens, where the first modern Olympic Games were held almost 130 years ago.
From Athens, the flame will travel to Italy, where it will begin a 63-day, 12,000-kilometre relay through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan's San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on February 6.
Italy will host the torch for the first time in 20 years, and 10,000 torchbearers have been organized.
“Standing here in this historic stadium is an inspiring reminder of the honor bestowed upon us and the precious treasure we will take home with us,” said Milan Cortina organizing committee president Giovanni Malago before receiving the torch.
WATCH | Design and development of the Olympic flame:
A behind-the-scenes look at how the Olympic torch was designed and developed for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games.
A forecast of heavy rainfall in Athens scared off large crowds and led organizers to announce the ceremony would be scaled back. But the rain did not stop until the very end, the weak sun broke through the heavy black clouds, and the few brave spectators who came were able to enjoy the performance of Greek and Italian singers and a children's choir in the stadium where the first modern Games were held in 1896.
After spending the night burning in a cauldron near the 5th-century BC Parthenon Temple atop the Acropolis, Greece's most famous landmark, the flame was carried to Panathinaikos Stadium by Greek water polo player Elena Xenaki, who lit another cauldron in the stadium with the Greek women's water polo team.
The flame was lit on November 26 at Ancient Olympia, the site of the ancient games that inspired the modern Olympic movement, using a concave mirror to focus the sun's rays onto the torch in a highly ceremonial display. The idea of the Olympic torch and torch relay was the result of Greek-German cooperation and arose on the eve of the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany. Since then this tradition has been observed.
On Thursday, Greek Olympic Committee President Isidoros Kouvelos handed over the flame to Malago.
“We can't change the whole world in 16 days of competition,” Kouvelos said, “but we can show in 16 days what the world can look like when respect comes first.”
This is the third Winter Games to be held in Italy, but preparations have been hampered by cost overruns and construction delays.
The Games will feature 116 medals, the debut of alpine skiing, the return of NHL players to Olympic hockey and greater participation by women.
A separate flame for the Paralympic Winter Games, which runs from March 6 to 15, will be lit on February 24 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.
Do you know the history of the Olympic flame? Did you know that the Olympic flame was introduced at the Berlin Games in 1936? Watch the first episode of CBC Sports Explains where we take you through the history of the flame, from the ancient Olympic Games to how it became the iconic symbol it is today.
