The 2026 Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina have arrived in Tesero

Val di Fiemme welcomes the Five Rings and Three Agitos

At the presence of the president and vice president PAT, with CONI, CIP and Coordinamento Provinciale Olimpico

In the company of past and present champions continues the journey of Nordic Ski Val di Fiemme

‘Discover the pride of being there, together we win": this morning’s inauguration of the five Rings and Three Agitos of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 could not have started better than this. The Tesero Municipal Theatre provided the background for the ceremony, which launched Val di Fiemme and Trentino towards the appointment with the world's most important sporting event in the presence of the President of the Autonomous Province of Trento Maurizio Fugatti, and in Piazza Cesare Battisti the Olympic and Paralympic effigies were unveiled with PAT Vice-President Francesca Gerosa, the mayors of Fiemme, and the CONI and CIP Trentino Presidents.

Before giving the official start to the morning, coordinated by the Nordic Ski Val di Fiemme organising committee, there is also time for the ritual pictures with the authorities in the municipality of Ville di Fiemme, where the Five Rings and Three Agitos are now welcoming tourists and locals.

In the crowded theatre of Tesero the ceremony opens with institutional greetings by the ‘hostess’, Mayor Elena Ceschini, and the President of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti who did not forget to remind the great efforts made by who worked, work and will work to guarantee the unfolding of a big event such as the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

From the first pre-World Championship in 1990 to the awaited Games Milano Cortina 2026, Val di Fiemme has come a long way, with the Trentino venue preparing to host as many as 21 Olympic and 39 Paralympic competitions, to award a total of 246 medals. In what will go down in history as one of the most scattered Winter Games ever, Val di Fiemme will be a host venue where the Nordic disciplines (cross-country skiing, jumping and combined) and the Paralympic cross-country and biathlon competitions will be staged.

Authorities took turns on the theatre stage, bringing greetings, in order, from CONI Trento with President Paola Mora, from CIP Trentino with President Massimo Bernardoni, and from the Coordinamento Provinciale Olimpico with President Tito Giovannini.

Val di Fiemme is a land of volunteers impregnated of the values of solidarity and altruism, but it is also a hothouse of champions: during the opening ceremony, Nordic combinatist Veronica Gianmoena, the first Italian Olympic gold medallist in cross-country skiing Franco Nones, Olympic champion Cristian Zorzi, para-ice hockey player Gianluca Cavaliere and Paralympic wheelchair curling athlete Gabriele Dallapiccola were interviewed by exceptional journalists. The students of the schools of Val di Fiemme, guests of the ceremony, asked their questions to the protagonists of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of the present and the past, who brought their testimonies, conveying in their simplicity the positive values embodied by sport.

Paola Mora, president of CONI Trento, spoke about the ‘Walking from Beijing to Trento’ (Camminando da Pechino a Trento) project, proud that it is precisely in Trentino that an initiative has been developed to instil in the new generations the importance of well-being and physical activity. From the pilot project that has seen the involvement, and awards, of the students of the 2.a A (which has now become 3.a A) of the Cavalese middle school, a nationwide initiative will now be born, which will be called ‘Walking the Games’ and will lead the whole of Italy towards Milano Cortina 2026.

The morning was also enriched by the maestro of Tesero's ‘il Pentagramma’ school with a string quartet performing on the notes of the major international composers, in whose repertoire an evocative version of the Ode to Joy could certainly not be missing.

The dynamic parade from Tesero's theatre led girls and boys with the flags of foreign countries, musicians, authorities and the public to Piazza Cesare Battisti where, after the unfailing greetings and good wishes from Tesero's mayor Elena Ceschini and Predazzo's mayor Paolo Boninsegna, the Five Circles and Three Agitos were unveiled in the company of local winter sports stars such as Cristian Zorzi, Bice Vanzetta, Giorgio Vanzetta and Franco Nones (cross-country skiing), Lara Naki Gutmann (figure skating), Livia Trettel (snowboarding) and Melania Corradini (Paralympic alpine skiing), Ernesto Vinante (Paralympic cross-country skiing), Gabriele Dallapiccola (wheelchair curling) and Gianluca Cavaliere (Para ice-hockey).

On a festive day for Val di Fiemme and Trentino, the classes of the valley's schools were also involved, with schoolchildren and students presenting their research on the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. With the collaboration of the teachers, even the new generations are approaching the great sports event that will involve Val di Fiemme in just over a year's time. Not only that, during the ceremony the hundred or so students present in the square also turned into a group of skilled choristers who sang for everyone their version of the anthem of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games ‘Till Dawn’ and the Italian national anthem. The mascots of the XXV Winter Olympics and XIV Winter Paralympics went wild, with Tina and Milo having fun in the company of the squirrel Skiri. The Fondazione Milano Cortina was also present with its chief strategy planning legacy officer Diana Bianchedi.

In closing, it is important to remember that today in Cavalese in the presence of the PAT Vice-President Francesca Gerosa, the president of the organising committee Nordic Ski Val di Fiemme Pietro De Godenz, the mayor of Cavalese Sergio Finato, the deputy mayor Alberto Vaia, the councillor for sport Alessandro Zorzi and the representative of the Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino Alessandro De Bertolini the graphic panel exhibition ‘The Values of Olympism and Nordic disciplines in Val di Fiemme’ was inaugurated at the Giardino delle Betulle in Cavalese.

‘Citius, Altius, Fortius - Communiter’ translated from Latin as ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together’ is the Olympic motto that perfectly sums up the spirit with which Val di Fiemme continues its journey towards the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games Milano Cortina.

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