The Olympic movement marches on

While the closing ceremony signalled the end of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games, the Olympic movement itself lives on. Athletes representing 92 nations converged for this year’s Olympic Games, proving once again that this biennial gathering is less a tournament and more a global heartbeat. Their passion, celebrated under the banner of “Beauty in Action,” captured the very essence of the Olympic spirit.

Scott Russell, a veteran sports broadcaster who as covered more than 10 Olympic Games, says the Olympics are the only sporting even that transcends sport because it's a movement, one that brings the world together in a spectacle that truly has something for everyone.

The magic peaked at the Arena of Verona, a 2,000-year-old amphitheatre that predates the Roman Colosseum with an immersive production of dance, theatre and music punctuated with Italian culture. Symbols of the Olympic movement, filled the venue, including the Olympic flame, which completed its 12,000-kilometre journey around Italy for the closing ceremonies. Lighting the Olympic rings signalled the athletes to enter, transforming the ancient floor into a modern stage.

Flag bearers Valérie Maltais and Steven Dubois led the Canadian contingent into the arena, both athletes bringing home medals for Canada in speed skating. Unlike the nation-specific march of the opening ceremonies, athletes enter the closing ceremonies as one unified group. They looped the arena in unison before taking their seats, allowing competitors to connect and embrace the moment together. It's the end of their journey. Despite international tensions, in the Olympic closing ceremonies differences do not matter. What matters is the games, the athletes and the spirit of the Olympic movement.

The winter-sport community now turns its attention to the 2030. The next Olympic Winter Games  will take place in the French Alps across four regions: Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Briançon and Nice. France, which hosted of the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924, now prepares to host its seventh Games.  

The end of the closing ceremonies means the games are now over. As organizers extinguished the Olympic flame, the Olympic movement said goodbye to Milano-Cortina 2026 and began looking forward to what is to come in 2030, where the world reconvenes in the French Alps. There, a new cohort of athletes will compete, and the magic of sport of the Olympic movement will thrive once again.