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The 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games will (formally) begin today with an Olympic first: an opening ceremony in more than one venue.

More than 1,200 performers will take the stage at the historic San Siro stadium in Milan, but they'll be sharing the spotlight with three ski resorts across northern Italy: Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo. 

Two Olympic cauldrons will be lit at the same moment in Milan and Cortina, which makes tonight's event the first "widespread ceremony" in the history of the Games.

Here's what else to know:

Who's carrying the flag for Canada?: Olympic veterans Mikaël Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson will lead Team Canada tonight.

Who's performing?: Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli and Sabrina Impacciatore are all on the list.

While I've been standing at the Arco della Pace, tourists and Olympic fans have been streaming through to take pics of the cauldron. 

It was easy to spot Rene Bellavalance in the crowd as he was wearing his Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey. He says he wore it because he was hoping it would stand out and help him connect with other Canadian fans, but he's disappointed that there doesn't seem to be a lot of buzz in the air.

"It's exciting to be here, but I wish the city would be more hyped kind of like Vancouver in 2010," he said. 

"I think it will be better once more events have started and especially tonight after the opening."

Bellavalance says has tickets to watch Italy face off against Sweden in men’s hockey. While he believes Sweden will easily win, he said he wanted to teach them how to cheer "the Habs way."

We do have a little bit more information about the cauldron-lighting now. 

Alberto Tomba and Deborah Compagnoni, two of Italy's most successful alpine skiers, have been tipped for the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldrons, but the names of those involved and the format have not been disclosed.

According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Tomba is tasked with lighting the cauldron at Milan's Arco della Pace near San Siro soccer stadium, while Compagnoni will do the honours at the second cauldron in Piazza Dibona.

I'm Sarah Leavitt, reporting from the beautiful alpine town of Livigno where Canada’s flag-bearers, alongside a contingent of athletes, will take part in the ceremony from the Snow Park.

Heading into the ceremony, alpine snowboarder Ben Heldman said he was so excited to be participating in his first ever Olympics.

"It’s the best thing ever. I’m so proud to wear the Maple Leaf," he said.

The parents of Vernon, B.C., freestyle skier Elena Gaskell will brave the cold and watch the ceremony on the big screens of Livigno's fan zone.

"I am so stoked to be able to cheer her on," said her mother, Holly Gaskell.

"We have all our hometown cheering for her."

Canadian women's hockey team GM says Finland reached out about illness

Gina Kingsbury, general manager of Canada’s women's Olympic hockey team, said Thursday that her team was asked if they were willing to postpone their first game after the Finnish team was hit with a norovirus outbreak. 'Forfeiting was never brought up,’ she said of a conversation with officials, adding that delaying was in the spirit of the Games.

The Finnish women’s hockey team practised this morning in Milan. The team's game against Canada was postponed yesterday after 13 players were either ill with norovirus or quarantined as a precaution. (Norovirus is a super contagious and very unpleasant gastrointestinal illness.)

Finnish general manager Kimmo Oikarinen said nine players are still isolated, but the situation is getting better. He's confident the team will play tomorrow against the United States.

"Forfeit is the last thing we want to do,” he said. “I don’t believe we will go there. I do not see that happening. I strongly believe we will play. The spirits are positive. They are getting ready for tomorrow."

Captain Michelle Karvinen, who plays for the PWHL's Vancouver Goldeneyes, was one of the players isolated yesterday. She was training this morning.

"It was not ideal, but it could have been way worse timing," she said. "In this case, the worst thing that happened was they moved the game."

Canada agreed to postpone its game against Finland to Feb. 12 in the spirit of the Games, Canadian general manager Gina Kingsbury explained yesterday. Here's my story about that decision. Canada will now open its tournament against Switzerland on Saturday at 3:10 p.m. ET.

I am Briar Stewart in Milan, where one of the two cauldrons will be lit simultaneously along with a second cauldron in Cortina.

The design of the cauldron is meant to pay tribute to the sun, inspired by the intricate designs of Leonardo da Vinci. Crew members have been putting the finishing touches on the setup, including painting the grey ramps used by the torchbearers. The crowd down here is quite sparse; security outnumbers spectators. Dozens have gathered, but organizers say they aren’t sure about the turnout given that there's no large screen here for people to actually watch the ceremony.

The identity of the person who actually lights the cauldron is usually shrouded in secret, and there's usually no small amount of theatre involved in this symbolic moment. 

Remember when Canadian legends including Catriona Le May Doan and Wayne Gretzky lit the giant symbolic cauldron in Vancouver in 2010 (and that unfortunate moment of erectile dysfunction when one pillar failed to rise)? 

We'll have to wait and see what Milan has planned tonight. What we do know is that these Games will have two cauldrons: one at the historic Arco della Pace in the heart of Milan and the other in Cortina's Piazza Dibona.

A big part of the opening ceremony is, of course, the arrival of the Olympic flame before it ignites the cauldron, marking the official start of the Games.

As per tradition, the flame is lit by the sun in a ceremony in Olympia, Greece, the site of the ancient Olympics, before it's passed between runners on a relay to the host city.

The flame destined for Milano Cortina was ignited on Nov. 26, 2025 and — after a weeklong jaunt around Greece — has toured all over Italy. The IOC estimates around 10,000 torchbearers will carry the flame on the 12,000-kilometre trip around Italy's 110 provinces — from Mediterranean shores to the highest Alpine peaks — before it arrives in Milan tonight.

Those torchbearers have included famous athletes such as soccer stars Cristiana Girelli and Zlatan Ibrahimović, cycling legend Vincenzo Nibali, former alpine skier Kristian Ghedina and former tennis star Francesca Schiavone.

Toronto's Jack Crawford posts the fastest time in final men's downhill training run

Toronto's Jack Crawford was the fastest in the final men's downhill training run in Bormio, Italy, posting a time of one minute 54.95 seconds, ahead of Saturday's gold medal race.

At the men's downhill training run in Bormio, Toronto's Jack Crawford posted the fastest time today, ahead of Saturday's gold medal race.

Crawford finished at 1:54.95, a whole 1.68 seconds ahead of Swiss skiers Marco Odermatt and Franjo von Allmen on the Stelvio course.

Swiss forward Alina Müller was only 15 when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Twelve years later, she’s now a leader on this Swiss team, and in the PWHL, where she's an assistant captain with the Boston Fleet.

Last month, I asked Müller why we should be talking more about her team. The Finnish and Czech teams usually get more attention, having won the last few world championship bronze medals between them.

"I think we show every tournament that we can beat the big countries," she said. "The last three years, we have been in four bronze medal games. So yeah, our aspiration is always being the No.1 in Europe."

Müller is a star on this team, and she knows that she needs to be at her best for the Swiss team to succeed. Today, she scored a third-period goal in the Swiss team's comeback. She then assisted on the Lara Christen goal that forced overtime.

"Our advantage is we're such a small country," Müller said in January. "We don't have that many players. We know each other inside and out, and we've played together for years on the national team. We know what everybody needs. If we can bring that on the ice, we're a very dangerous team."

We just wrapped up an exciting preliminary-round game between Switzerland and Czechia that took eight rounds (yes, you read that right) in a shootout to settle.

The Swiss, who won 4-3, charged back in the third period to force extra time, and Ivana Wey was the Swiss team's hero in the shootout.

It's a huge win for a Swiss team that hasn't been on the podium since 2014. Every team from the stacked Group A (Switzerland, Czechia, Canada, United States and Finland) will move on to the quarterfinals, but placement in the group is important.

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