CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio will serve as a torchbearer for Milano Cortina 2026. The head of the Italian Olympic movement will carry the Olympic flame on the afternoon of 5 February in Milan’s Sant’Ambrogio district, exactly 24 hours before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.

Buonfiglio, the first CONI President ever to have been an Olympic athlete, highlighted the significance of the honour: “I am proud to take centre stage in the Torch Relay in the city where I began my sporting career and established myself as a manager. It is an emotion I had already experienced at the Turin 2006 Games, when I also passed the flame to the current Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi. I share this special moment with the movement I have the honour to lead, a movement capable of celebrating the universality of the values we stand for. The five-ring flame symbolises a message whose power will never fade, continuing to promote the strength of sport as a vehicle for peace, inclusion, progress and innovation”.