The International Olympic Committee (IOC) expects about 2,900 athletes to take part in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, IOC head Kirsty Coventry said.

— We are expecting about 2,900 athletes from more than 90 national Olympic committees. “This will be the most gender-balanced Olympics,” Coventry said during a conversation with reporters.

The 2026 Olympic Games will be held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from February 6 to 22. Russian athletes will perform at the Olympics in a neutral status.

Russian skiers Savely Korostelev and Daria Nepryaeva, as well as speed skaters Ksenia Korzhova and Anastasia Semenova, received invitations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to participate in the 2026 Olympics in Italy, the organization’s press service reports.

The Olympic Games will take place from 6 to 22 February in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Earlier, invitations from the IOC were accepted by Russian figure skaters Pyotr Gumennik and Adelia Petrosyan, ski mountaineer Nikita Filippov and short track skaters Ivan Posashkov and Alena Krylova.

The creative director of the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Marko Balic, confirmed that two cauldrons containing the Olympic flame will be used during the event.

The opening ceremony of the 2026 Games will take place on February 6 at the San Siro stadium in Milan, and parts of it will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo, the cities that will host various competitions.

— I am ready to confirm that we will use two bowls. We want Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo to be on an equal footing, so that no one feels left out.

We are preparing a program for the works of Puccini, Verdi and Rossini. Their music will be the soul of our ceremony. People’s emotions are our secret ingredient.

We want to create some bright and memorable moments throughout the ceremony. I don’t want to reveal all my cards, but I hope that we will touch certain notes in the souls of the audience,” Balic said during a press conference.

Balic also said that the opening ceremony of the Olympics will be dedicated, among other things, to Giorgio Armani. The Italian fashion designer died on September 4, 2025 at the age of 91.

“We will use images created by Armani over many years. By doing so, we want to honor his memory and note the contribution he made to the development of the global fashion world and world art. And to show how much he meant to us Italians.

Harmony is the main theme of our ceremony. It is about harmony between man and nature. Everything that is harmonious is beautiful. And for Italians, beauty is the essence of nature. Harmony is also a universal message of peace, something we really need in 2026.

But we know that the main stars of the ceremony are the athletes,” Balic said in a press conference.