Milan-Cortina Olympic Games closing ceremony

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry lauded Milan-Cortina 2026 as a "new kind of Winter Games" as she declared them closed on Sunday. These Olympics used mainly existing venues for 16 days of medal-filled action spread for hundreds of kilometres across the Italian Alps.

"You delivered a new kind Winter Games and set a new standard for the future," Coventry told her Italian hosts at the closing ceremony in the Verona Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheatre. After Coventry spoke, the two cauldrons in Milan and in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the chic mountain resort that hosted the women's alpine skiing, were extinguished to formally signal the end of the Olympics.