Portugal Colonial - Athletes' parade at Winter Olympics' opening ceremony to be held across event sites

The opening ceremony will be held on February 6 at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy's economic capital which will be one of four clusters at the Olympics.

But with the Games spread out over a huge area, from Milan in north-western Italy to Cortina d'Ampezzo some 260 kilometres to the north-east as the crow flies, many of the athletes will not be able to take part in the San Siro ceremony.

The Winter Olympics will be held in Milan and at clusters centred around Cortina, Bormio and Predazzo in mountainous regions of northern Italy, where the athletes will also be able to present themselves to the viewing public.

Verona's ancient Roman amphitheatre, which is nearly 2,000 years old, will host the closing ceremony of the Games which will take place over February 6-22.

"We're the first spread out Games and that has left us with a lot of difficulties," said Andrea Varnier, CEO of Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee, at an event at the San Siro.

"We have decided to have the first ever opening ceremony spread out over different sites.

"We can't forget that the athletes are at the centre of what we do, and the parade is the most-watched moment of the Olympics which broadcasters would never forgo. If we did it only in Milan there would be a risk of only a few of the athletes being able to take part."

Varnier later told reporters that National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will be able to decide in which of the four clusters athletes will be able to bear their country's flag.

Tickets for the opening ceremony, which will last two-and-a-half hours, are priced in four categories, starting from 260 euros ($304) and going up to over 2,000 euros.

The ceremony could be the last major international event ever hosted by the San Siro, an iconic arena which hosts Inter Milan and AC Milan football matches but is on course to be demolished.

Inter and Milan, two giants of European football, were last month given permission by the city of Milan to purchase the publicly-owned land on which the stadium sits.

The ruling is subject to the sale being completed by November 10 when a preservation order on the San Siro's second tier will come into effect should the stadium still be in the city's hands.

Inter and Milan have plans to build a 71,500-capacity stadium on an area occupied by parkland and car parking adjacent to the San Siro, which will be mostly demolished once the new ground is completed and make way for an entertainment district, offices and hotels.

M.A.Vaz--PC