The Olympic Winter Games in Milan kicked off with a stunning slate of performances.

As the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics begin, all eyes were on teams from around the globe proudly donning their countries' uniforms for the opening ceremony, including Team USA in outfits designed by Ralph Lauren.

Greece, as always, will be the first country introduced in the Parade of Nations for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

MILAN (AP) — Featuring tributes to da Vinci and Dante, Puccini and Pausini, Armani and Fellini, pasta and vino, and other iconic tastes of Italian culture — plus Mariah Carey hitting all the high notes in “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” aka “Volare” — an unprecedented four-site,

Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian opera singer, previously sang the song during his final public performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin. Because of his health issues, the song was pre-recorded and lip-synced.

The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off with an opening ceremony on Friday that averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

Milan's San Siro Stadium played the role of primary host. But, in the spirit of these unusually widespread Games, simultaneous celebrations were also held in the clusters of Livigno, Predazzo and Cortina d'Ampezzo, which — for the first time ever — lit a second Olympic cauldron.