The opening ceremony of the 25th Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy today, officially marking the start of one of the world’s largest sporting events. According to Idman.Biz, the Games are being staged across two host cities - Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
While the official ceremony is scheduled for 6 February, competition at the Winter Olympic Games began earlier. Mixed doubles curling opened the sporting programme on 4 February, followed by the start of the women’s ice hockey tournament on 5 February. The opening ceremony itself will take place at the iconic San Siro stadium in Milan, starting at 23:26 Baku time, or 20:26 local time - a symbolic reference to the year 2026.
Athletes will compete for a total of 116 medal sets across 16 sports, seven more than at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The programme has been expanded to include new events such as mixed team skeleton, men’s and women’s moguls in freestyle skiing, and ski mountaineering, which makes its Olympic debut with sprint events for men and women as well as a team competition. At the same time, the mixed team event in alpine skiing has been removed from the schedule.
Azerbaijan will be represented by two athletes at the Games. Figure skater Vladimir Litvintsev will compete in the men’s figure skating events, while Anastasia Papatoma will take part in the women’s slalom in alpine skiing, carrying the country’s hopes in Italy.
