Winter Olympics 2026 host Milan Cortina briefing

Representatives of the Cortina-Milan 2026 Winter Olympics arrived in China on Friday, in preparation for the Beijing 2022 closing ceremony.  Beijing will hand over the Olympic flag to representatives of Milan and Cortina, the lead cities for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The mayor of Milan thanked Chinese organizers for the "wonderful" hosting of this year's edition of the games.  Milan has approximately ten minutes of Sunday's closing ceremony to introduce its turn. Italy is a veteran Olympics host. The Dolomites town of Cortina last held the winter games in 1956, and 93% of the venues necessary for holding the games already exist.