The torch for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was lit on Wednesday in an indoor and scaled-down ceremony in ancient Olympia due to weather warnings, marking the final push for organizers for the event in February.

The traditional ceremony, normally held at the stadium where the Games were born in ancient Greece and using actresses as priestesses who light the flame from the sun’s rays using a parabolic mirror, was scrapped ahead of time due to heavy rain warnings.

Instead, with the sun shining outside, officials inside the Olympia archaeological museum attended a low-key event with a video showing the lighting of the flame during Monday’s rehearsal in the ancient stadium, before the flame was carried into the museum for the torch lighting.

Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis was the first torchbearer who left the museum and he was soon joined by Italy’s multiple Olympic cross-country skiing medalist Stefania Belmondo for a joint leg of the relay.

After a week-long Greek relay, the flame will be handed over in Athens to Italian Games organizers on December 4 before it travels to Italy for the start of a months-long domestic relay.

“The past and the present are really coming together,” said International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry in a short speech. “Today’s ceremony reminds us what the Olympic Games stand for: bringing people together in peaceful competition, friendship and respect.”

“As we light the Olympic flame … we carry this light from our ancient past into our shared future,” said Coventry, who was elected IOC President in March and will preside over her first Olympics in February.

The torch will pass through 60 Italian cities and 300 towns with a total of 10,001 torchbearers, before reaching Cortina D’Ampezzo on January 26 – exactly 70 years after the opening ceremony of the 1956 Games at the same venue.

The Italian relay will take in famous landmarks including the Colosseum in Rome and the Grand Canal in Venice, with stops in southern cities such as Palermo and Naples to spark excitement in areas where winter sports are not as prominent.

The journey will conclude in Milan, entering the San Siro stadium on the evening of February 6 for the Games’ opening ceremony.

[Reuters]