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This was an opening ceremony for the ages: effortlessly chic, bewitching and divine. Milan simultaneously delivered a three-hour love letter to Italy, and a plea for hope and harmony in a fractious world.
But not everyone in the 60,000 crowd at San Siro was listening. As the United States team, led by the speedskater Erin Jackson, made its way across the stadium it was loudly applauded. But then the TV cameras panned to the US vice-president, JD Vance, and his wife, Usha, and the cheers turned to loud boos.
Few here would have been surprised. All week Milan has echoed to the sound of loud whistles and rancour, ever since it heard that US immigration and customs enforcement officials (ICE) would be accompanying Vance, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
Hours before the opening ceremony, a thousand protesters also held anti-Ice banners, set off flares and chanted: “Fuck Ice, let’s take back the city.” Of course, some of them were going to stick it to the man when the world was watching.
And it was perhaps Vance that the International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, had in mind when she gently promised that these Olympics would see “the best of humanity shine before the world”.
“This is why we all love the Games,” she told the athletes. “Because through you, we see the very best of ourselves. You’ll show us that strength isn’t just about winning – it’s about courage, empathy, and heart.
“You remind us that we can be brave. That we can be kind. When we see rivals embrace at the finish line, we are reminded that we can choose respect.
“When we see grace, courage, and friendship – we remember the kind of people we all want to be. The spirit of the Olympic Games is about so much more than sport. It is about us – and what makes us human.”
It was a powerful message during a ceremony that was otherwise determined to party. The music was spectacular and the athletes and crowd revelled in every moment.
In the buildup, the creative director, Marco Balich, had promised that his team of artists and performers had devoted 700 hours of rehearsals to ensure everything would be perfect. They delivered – and then some.
The show began with 70 dancers from Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, twirling and spinning in perfect time, across a background of classical statues. Soon there were also nods to Ancient Rome and the Renaissance, food and fashion, literature and design.
There were also genuflections to Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Armani. There were supermodels in red, green and white, the colours of the Italian flag, walking down a catwalk before the Italian national anthem was played. There was even a surreal section devoted to hand gestures – although none of the ones that are usually seen in Milan rush hour.
Unsurprisingly for such a lavish ceremony, 70 hairdressers and 110 makeup artists were involved on the night. Not all of them were for the personal use of Mariah Carey, who had the crowd eating out of her hand early in the evening by singing Volare (“Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu”) in Italian.
Later, the crowd were out of their seats again for Andrea Bocelli, who sang a neck-tingling version of Nessum Dorma, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang, a Brazilian athlete who did a backflip in the snow and the Ukrainian and Italian teams, who were given storming reactions when they were introduced.
But the ceremony carried a deeper message too: that sport, in its own small and insignificant way, can sometimes unite a divided world. The theme of the night was armonia – or harmony in English – whose original meaning means bringing together what is different.
Meanwhile, Coventry, who took over as IOC president last year, also drew on her background growing up in Zimbabwe to stress how much the world was interconnected.
“In Africa, where I’m from, we have a word: ubuntu,” she said. “It means: I am because we are. That we rise by lifting others. That our strength comes from caring for each other. No matter where you come from, we all know this spirit – it lives and breathes in every community.
“I see this spirit most clearly at the Olympic Games. Here, athletes from every corner of the world compete fiercely – but they also respect, support and inspire one another. They remind us that we are all connected, that our strength comes from how we treat each other, and that the best of humanity is found in courage, compassion and kindness.”
That was a message stressed by members of the US team too. Before the ceremony, the freestyle skier Hunter Hess admitted he had mixed emotions when asked what it meant to wear Team USA gear and the American flag.
“There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of,” he replied. “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US.”
At the end of the night, the president of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, officially declared the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 open to giant cheers. All told, it was a triumph. Even if this ceremony will be remembered for one particularly visceral reaction earlier in the night.
