Preparations for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics ratcheted up on the eve of the opening ceremony while the start of the ice hockey was hit by an outbreak of norovirus.
The most geographically dispersed Games in history officially start with a ceremony in the San Siro stadium in Milan on Friday (local time) that will also take in the three other sites spread across the Dolomites.
US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Milan to attend the ceremony, which will feature performances by singer Mariah Carey and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The first day of the ice hockey competition suffered a setback when a women’s game between defending champions Canada and Finland had to be postponed after Finnish players fell ill with norovirus.
“The decision was taken following consultations with medical professionals after cases of norovirus were identified within Team Finland,” the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee said.
According to Italian media four Finnish players have contracted the highly contagious virus, a form of gastroenteritis, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea.
The game has been postponed until February 12, but other women’s games did go ahead.
Meanwhile, the men’s downhill skiers got a second taste of the fearsome Stelvio piste in Bormio, where they will battle for gold on Saturday in the first major competitive highlight of the Games.
The biggest star of these Olympics, American skier Lindsey Vonn, has to wait to test her injured leg after the first women’s downhill training in the chic resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo was cancelled because of heavy snow.
Vonn’s Olympic comeback at the age of 41 depends on her being able to ski with a ruptured ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).
Away from the sport, Greenpeace activists staged a protest in Milan against the sponsorship of the Games by energy giant Eni, warning that fossil fuel emissions were threatening the viability of winter sports.
Bearing banners saying “Kick polluters out of the Games”, the activists set up a model of the Olympic rings covered in black oil in front of the cathedral in central Milan.
“Sponsorships like Eni’s for Milan-Cortina 2026 are not innocent, they are a distraction to make us forget the damage these companies are causing to the planet,” Greenpeace Italia said in a statement.
The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it had received a petition of 21,000 signatures calling for an end to fossil fuel companies sponsoring winter sports.
IOC president Kirsty Coventry said: “We are having conversations in order to be better, and for our stakeholders to be better. But that takes time.”
Vance sought to put politics aside when he visited American athletes preparing for their events.
“The whole country, Democrat, Republican, independent, we’re all rooting for you, and we’re cheering for you,” he told members of Team USA.
“This is one of the few things that unites the entire country,” the Republican said. “I hope you win as many medals as possible.”
There has been anger in Italy in the build-up after it emerged that agents from the US immigration enforcement agency ICE will have an “advisory” role at the Games.
Rome has denied that the agents will have any operational role on its soil.
Italy said on Wednesday it had thwarted a series of Russian cyberattacks targeting the Olympics.
A Russian hacker group claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was in response to the Italian government’s support for Ukraine.