The vagaries of the weather forced the ceremony to be celebrated indoors and not at the ancient sanctuary but today in Olimpia the flame of Milano Cortina 2026 was lit and the journey began that will take it to the San Siro stadium on 6 February, in 71 days. Among the first torchbearers in Greece are the champions Armin Zoeggeler and Stefania Belmondo. Then it begins.
These Italian Games will begin divided between Lombardy and Veneto. It begins and, as every time, almost by magic many of the controversies will subside. Sport will speak, only sport. Although perhaps it is no longer possible, because sport is now a business and therefore brings with it a trail of interest and power that pollutes what history has given us as a dream to be passed down. They are the modern Olympics, of today. With wars that no longer stop, with the fear of attacks, with sponsors dictating the times and conditions, with governments deciding where they will take place.
What Olympics will they be? Impossible to know. Hopefully loyal, daring, epic, victorious and blue but it would be enough if they were the Olympics of athletes with their sacrifices, their stories, their dreams. Many, many, young people, full of joy, expectations, hopes and energy to put into play. Make way for them who are the good, mostly healthy, part of a sport which, despite everything, has in its DNA the ability to always survive even clichés. Are they all doped? Not even in a dream. The desire is to think of a sport where you don’t play dirty, where you start on equal terms and in the end the stronger one comes first. Without makeup and without deception.
Utopia? Surely yes but Utopia is the formidable engine which also allows those who do not have the weapons of the powerful to fight on equal terms. To keep up. And so what seems inevitable, inevitable and already written is continually called into question. Whatever happens, a sign will remain. Beyond the stopwatches, the records, the records of victories and defeats. Emotions will win. Effort, smiles, tears, hugs, clenched fists, arms in the air, screams, handshakes, caresses and glances that stop an unrepeatable moment of a career and a life. Images, as the great photographers say, made of sensations, passions and nuances. Because sport is this “stuff” here. You just need to seize the moment. All that is needed is for the fire of Olympia to be lit…