History
Milano Cortina 2026: The First Olympics With Two Cauldrons
Why one flame burned in two cities, 400 kilometers apart
February 5, 20264 min read
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On the night of February 6, 2026, the Winter Olympics lit two cauldrons at the same time, in two different cities, 400 kilometers apart. No Games had done that in nearly a century of ceremonial fire.
One flame rose beneath the Arco della Pace in Milan. The other stood in Piazza Angelo Dibona in Cortina d'Ampezzo, ringed by the Dolomites. Both burned until the closing ceremony put them out together.
Why Milano Cortina 2026 Needed Two Cauldrons
These were two cities' Games from the start. Milan held the opening ceremony, the ice sports and the big urban crowds. Cortina, far to the northeast in the mountains, held the women's alpine skiing and the sliding track, seventy years after hosting the Winter Olympics on its own in 1956.
A cauldron is where people walk past at night and take their photos, and it tells them the Games are here. A co-host without one would have been left out.
So the organizers built two. For the first time in Olympic history, two cauldrons were lit simultaneously in two cities. They burned in parallel through all seventeen days of competition, and they were extinguished together.
Who Lit the Flames on February 6
The flame reached the San Siro opening ceremony at the end of a 63-day relay across Italy: 12,000 kilometers, all 110 provinces, 10,001 torchbearers.
In Milan, the honor went to Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, two of the best alpine skiers Italy has produced. For Italians of a certain age, those two names mean whole winters spent in front of the television. Together they lit the cauldron beneath the Arco della Pace, the neoclassical arch at the head of Corso Sempione.
In Cortina, Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia lit the mountain cauldron in Piazza Angelo Dibona. Earlier that same day she had taken a training run for the downhill she would race on Cortina's own slopes. Few torchbearers have lit a cauldron in the town where they were about to compete.
Cauldrons Built by Shipwrights
The twin cauldrons were designed by Marco Balich, working with Lida Castelli and Paolo Fantin, and built in partnership with Fincantieri, the Italian shipbuilder. The design pays homage to the sun as the source of life and renewal, which suits a flame that always begins with sunlight focused through a mirror at Olympia.
Milan also made its cauldron a nightly event. Starting February 7, on the hour from 5 to 11 pm, the cauldron performed a short show of movement and light, a few minutes long, set to music by Roberto Cacciapaglia, free to anyone standing in the piazza.
In March both cauldrons were lit again for the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.
Two Fires, One Flame
Both cauldrons burned the same flame. Every torch in the relay, every transfer lantern, traced back to the single lighting at Olympia on November 26, 2025. The Olympic flame is really a chain of custody, which is why it never goes out between Greece and the Games.
Two cauldrons meant more people could stand in front of the flame, which is the same reason a torch relay exists. The 2026 torch itself was built for that kind of journey: recycled aluminum, refillable, designed to keep a flame alive through an Italian winter.
What Two Cauldrons Signal for Los Angeles
LA 2028 will be spread across a huge region, and Milano Cortina showed the approach it will need: take the flame to people instead of making them come to it. The 50-state relay does that across the country, and I am campaigning for a place on it. If someone in your life belongs on that route, nominate them.