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12/06 15:54 CST Summer Olympians begin torch relay for Milan Cortina Winter
Games on 2-month countdown
Summer Olympians begin torch relay for Milan Cortina Winter Games on 2-month
countdown
By ANDREW DAMPF
AP Sports Writer
ROME (AP) --- Olympic swimming champion Gregorio Paltrinieri and fellow Summer
athletes started the torch relay for the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday
--- marking exactly two months before the Feb. 6 opening ceremony.
Paltrinieri carried the sleek torch around the track of the statue-lined Stadio
dei Marmi at the Foro Italico to begin a trek covering 12,000 kilometers
(nearly 7,500 miles) that will wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces
before reaching Milan's San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.
"It's a pleasure to be part of the Olympic movement even if it's Winter
Olympics," Paltrinieri said.
In all, there will be 10,001 torch bearers.
At the end of the opening day, police said they stopped two groups of
pro-Palestinian activists from coming into contact with the relay route.
Giancarlo Peris, the final torch bearer from the 1960 Olympics in Rome, carried
the Olympic flame in a lantern to get the proceedings going. The 84-year-old
Peris was 18 when he lit the cauldron at the Stadio Olimpico --- which is next
to the Stadio dei Marmi --- more than 65 years ago.
"I didn't think I would be here today," Peris said with a chuckle.
Paltrinieri won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and
has five Olympic medals in all. He and girlfriend Rossella Fiamingo, a fencer,
carried Italy's flag at the closing ceremony for last year's Paris Games.
"I used to ski when I was a kid but then I stopped because it's a little bit
dangerous for me," Paltrinieri said. "Skiing is my favorite (Winter Olympic
sport). ... Alberto Tomba was one of my biggest idols."
Paltrinieri handed off to retired fencer Elisa Di Francisca, who won two golds
at the 2012 London Games.
Next was Gianmarco Tamberi, the 2020 Olympic high jump champion.
Also carrying the torch around Rome on Saturday were tennis player Matteo
Berrettini, retired NBA player Andrea Bargnani and former motorcycle racer Max
Biaggi.
Actor Ricky Tognazzi carried the torch while riding a white Vespa in a scene
reminiscent of the 1953 film "Roman Holiday" featuring Audrey Hepburn and
Gregory Peck.
The torch relay, which includes 60 city celebrations, will be in Naples for
Christmas and in Bari for New Year's Eve. It will reach 2006 Olympics host
Turin on Jan 11.
The torch will arrive in Verona on Jan. 18 and pass through Cortina d'Ampezzo
on Jan. 26 --- on the 70th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1956
Winter Olympics held at the resort in the Dolomites.
There will also be a cauldron lit in Cortina on the night of the opening
ceremony.
Local organizing committee president Giovanni Malag noted the torch relay will
pass by all of the country's UNESCO World Heritage sites, of which Italy has
more than any other country with 61.
"It's like a giant two-month advertisement," Malag said.
These Games will be held across a large swath of northern Italy and the
ceremony will be observed in four different locations, including Livigno (where
snowboarding and freestyle skiing will be contested) and Predazzo (ski jumping).
Skating sports will be in Milan; men's Alpine skiing and ski mountaineering in
Bormio; and women's Alpine skiing, sliding sports and curling in Cortina.
The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday and Terni on Monday.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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