The Verona Arena hosted a closing ceremony that mixed opera, dance, DJs, flags, medals and IOC speeches, offering a distinctly Italian finish to 17 days of competition. After performances that ranged from high opera to electronic numbers, and with the flame finally extinguished, the 2026 Winter Olympics passed the baton to the French Alps for 2030.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry praised volunteers, athletes and her organization before formally declaring the Games closed. Her address came amid a Games that most observers judged a sporting success despite political controversies that repeatedly drew attention away from the competitions.
The ceremony included the traditional parade of athletes filing through the amphitheater’s ancient stone archways. Around 2,900 competitors took part across the Italian venues — a modest number compared with the roughly 10,500 athletes at Paris 2024 — but enough to convey the scale and spectacle of an Olympic Games. Many nations were represented by chosen flagbearers; Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, each winning a seventh luge gold, exemplified the event’s standout performers.
Medals for the final events were presented in the stadium. Sweden’s Ebba Andersson won the women’s 50km mass start cross-country race, while Norway completed a podium sweep in the men’s 50km, won by Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Klæbo’s haul — including six golds at these Games — helped Norway top the table by some distance, a reflection of European dominance at this Winter Olympics. Aside from the United States in second and Japan in tenth, the top ten medals list was largely European.
Ceremony highlights ranged from reverent to surreal. An opening operatic performance suited the Verona Arena’s Roman setting, later giving way to electronic music that introduced dozens of mushroom-like figures amid mirrored stages. One performer in a giant jellyfish costume recited lines from Dante’s Divine Comedy, while another jumped on a trampoline — an eclectic blend meant to showcase Italy’s cultural tapestry. Italian acts on the bill included singer-rapper Achille Lauro, actress Benedetta Porcaroli and DJ Gabry Ponte.
There were quieter, respectful moments too. A montage honored the thousands of volunteers whose work underpinned the dispersed logistics of these Games, and an interpretive dance paid tribute to those no longer with us before a final water-themed performance symbolizing a poetic journey through states of ice and snow.
The protocol parts of the ceremony followed tradition: the Italian flag was raised and the anthem played on lone trumpet then joined by orchestra and choir as medalists joined in. The Olympic flame, lit months earlier in Olympia, Greece, was carried into the arena and later extinguished in a sequence that combined musical theatre and symbolism. The Olympic flag was handed to representatives from France, who accepted amid a subdued brass rendition of La Marseillaise, and officials and athletes looked ahead to the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.
Yet the Games were not without controversy. The IOC’s decision to bar Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from wearing a helmet bearing images of Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia provoked strong reactions; Coventry herself appeared emotional when announcing the ruling. Protest activity also marked the final weekend in Verona, with hundreds marching against the Games over housing costs, environmental concerns and perceived social impacts. Other flashpoints included scrutiny of FIFA president Gianni Infantino for wearing a red, MAGA-style hat during events linked to US politics, protesters objecting to the presence of American ICE agents, a British skier’s profanity directed at Donald Trump, and discussion around the return of Russian and Belarusian flags at the upcoming Paralympics.
Despite these tensions, the sporting achievements were many. Norway’s dominance, exceptional individual performances like Klæbo’s, and numerous personal stories of overcoming adversity featured across the competition. The closing ceremony’s mix of spectacle and solemnity attempted to capture both athletic excellence and the host nation’s cultural identity.
After roughly 150 minutes of ceremony, the flame was put out, official speeches concluded, and the Verona Arena’s evocative setting was left to settle back into its millennia of history. The Winter Olympics in Italy are over; attention now turns to the French hosts in 2030 and the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028. Thanks for following this coverage.
