The first widespread Olympics in the history of the Games has been a great Italian success. The official name, Milano Cortina 2026, for the first time includes two main cities as co-hosts, but after a memorable Opening Ceremony staged primarily at San Siro Stadium, competitions have also taken place in Livigno, Bormio, Anterselva, Tesero and Predazzo.

For the Italy Team, it has been a Games of records and firsts. Thirty medals were won, including 10 gold, six silver and 14 bronze. Figures surpassing those of Lillehammer 1994, the edition of the Winter Games that for 32 years had held the record for Italian podium finishes (20) and gold medals (seven). With the largest Italian Winter delegation ever (196 athletes, including 103 men and 93 women), the Italy Team claimed medals in 10 different disciplines (alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, short track, snowboard and speed skating), one fewer than the historic record set by the United States at PyeongChang 2018. All four flagbearers – the first Olympics in history with a quartet of standard-bearers at the Opening Ceremony – reached the podium: Federico Pellegrino with bronze medals in the relay and team sprint in cross-country skiing; Federica Brignone with gold in the giant slalom and super-G in alpine skiing; Amos Mosaner with bronze in the mixed doubles in curling; Arianna Fontana with gold in the mixed relay and silver in the 500 metres and the women’s 3,000-metre relay in short track. The percentage of medals won at Milano Cortina 2026 compared to the total number awarded (8.62%) is surpassed in absolute terms only by the Summer edition of Los Angeles 1932 (9.72%) and the Winter edition of Lillehammer 1994 (10.92%). There were also numerous individual records. Arianna Fontana surpassed the Italian all-time Olympic medal record (14), previously held by fencing legend Edoardo Mangiarotti (13). Francesca Lollobrigida (gold in the 3,000 metres and 5,000 metres) became the first Italian woman to win gold in speed skating, as well as the first Italian overall to do so since Enrico Fabris (Turin 2006, gold in the 1,500 metres and team pursuit). A historic double gold was also achieved by Federica Brignone (giant slalom and super-G), something only Alberto Tomba had managed before her in alpine skiing at a single edition of the Games (slalom and giant slalom, Calgary 1988). Historic too was Lisa Vittozzi’s gold in the women’s 10 km pursuit, the first Olympic triumph in the history of Italian biathlon.

Among the highlights was Sofia Goggia’s bronze in the downhill, making her the first female skier in history to reach the Olympic podium in the discipline at three consecutive Games, following gold at PyeongChang 2018 and silver at Beijing 2022. Not only that. The Milano Cortina 2026 medal table features Italy’s first medal (bronze in the team event) in figure skating’s team competition (Sara Conti, Niccolò Macii, Charlène Guignard, Marco Fabbri, Daniel Grassl, Matteo Rizzo and Lara Naki Gutmann), the first Italian gold in the short track mixed relay (Chiara Betti, Elisa Confortola, Arianna Fontana, Thomas Nadalini, Pietro Sighel and Luca Spechenhauser), the first double triumph in luge doubles (Simon Kainzwaldner and Emanuel Rieder in the men’s event; Marion Oberhofer and Andrea Voetter in the women’s), a discipline which also delivered a historic first podium (bronze) in the team relay (Dominik Fischnaller, Verena Hofer, together with the aforementioned Kainzwaldner, Rieder, Oberhofer and Voetter). In addition: the first Italian medals in freestyle skiing (gold for Simone Deromedis and silver for Federico Tomasoni in ski cross, and bronze for Flora Tabanelli in big air) and the first medal in the cross-country team sprint (bronze for Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino). Not forgetting a participation worth a medal in itself: Roland Fischnaller’s seventh Winter Olympic appearance. No one like him. No other Olympics like Milano Cortina 2026.

And to mention the three international stars of a medal table topped by Norway (41 medals, including 18 gold) ahead of the United States (33 medals, including 12 gold), the Netherlands (20 medals, including 10 gold) and, indeed, Italy, those who took centre stage were the Norwegian Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, dominant in cross-country skiing, the Norwegian-born Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the first South American in history to win a Winter Olympic medal, and the American-born Chinese Eileen Gu, on the podium in three freestyle events and a major figure in terms of audience reach beyond the slopes.

The curtain falls with the extraordinary Closing Ceremony at the Arena di Verona, but the journey continues and the ambition to improve even further remains unchanged.