The Verona Arena hosted a closing ceremony that blended opera, contemporary dance, DJs, flags, medals and IOC speeches, bringing a distinctly Italian close to 17 days of competition. With performances ranging from high opera to electronic sets and the Olympic flame finally extinguished, the 2026 Winter Games formally passed the baton to the French Alps for 2030.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry lauded volunteers, athletes and her organization before declaring the Games closed. Observers broadly judged the event a sporting success, even as political controversies intermittently shifted attention from the competitions.
Athletes marched through the amphitheater’s ancient stone archways in the traditional parade of nations. About 2,900 competitors took part across Italian venues — far fewer than the roughly 10,500 athletes at Paris 2024 but still enough to convey the scale and spectacle of an Olympic Games. Flagbearers represented many delegations; Germany’s Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt, each adding a seventh luge gold to their records, were among the standouts.
Medals for the final events were awarded inside the arena. 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, topped by Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Klæbo’s haul — including six gold medals at these Games — helped Norway dominate the table, which was otherwise largely European apart from the United States in second and Japan at tenth.
The ceremony’s tone moved from reverent to surreal. An opening operatic piece suited the Verona Arena’s Roman setting, later giving way to electronic music and dozens of mushroom-like figures amid mirrored stages. A performer in a giant jellyfish costume recited lines from Dante’s Divine Comedy and another launched off a trampoline — an eclectic mix intended to showcase Italy’s cultural range. Italian performers included singer-rapper Achille Lauro, actress Benedetta Porcaroli and DJ Gabry Ponte.
There were quieter, respectful moments as well. A montage honored the thousands of volunteers whose work underpinned the dispersed logistics of these Games, and an interpretive dance remembered those who have died. A final, water-themed sequence offered a poetic passage through the states of ice and snow.
Ceremonial protocol followed tradition: the Italian flag was raised and its anthem sounded first on a lone trumpet before orchestra and choir joined. The Olympic flame, lit months earlier in Olympia, Greece, was carried into the arena and later extinguished in a staged, symbolic sequence. The Olympic flag was handed to French representatives amid a subdued brass rendition of La Marseillaise, as attention turned to the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.
The Games were not without controversy. The IOC barred Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from wearing a helmet bearing images of Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, a decision that prompted strong reactions and left Coventry visibly moved when announcing it. Protest activity 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 at events, demonstrations over the presence of U.S. immigration agents, a British skier’s profanity directed at Donald Trump, and debate over the return of Russian and Belarusian flags at the upcoming Paralympics.
Despite those tensions, the competitions delivered many memorable sporting achievements: Norway’s dominance, extraordinary individual performances such as Klæbo’s, and numerous stories of athletes overcoming adversity. The closing ceremony’s mixture of spectacle and solemnity aimed to capture both athletic excellence and the host nation’s cultural identity.
After roughly 150 minutes of performances and formalities, the flame was extinguished and the official speeches concluded. The Verona Arena settled back into its centuries of history as the Winter Olympics in Italy came to an end; attention now turns to France in 2030 and Los Angeles in 2028.