Sawt Falasteen - Flame arrives in Milan for Winter Olympics ceremony

The most geographically dispersed Games in history officially start with a ceremony in the San Siro stadium in Milan on Friday that will also unfold in three other sites spread across the Dolomite mountains and Italian Alps.

A cauldron will be lit under the city's Arch of Peace at the end of the flame's journey through the streets of Milan.

A second Olympic cauldron will be lit in the chic resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomites, where the women's alpine skiing events are being held.

US Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Milan to attend the ceremony, which will feature performances by singer Mariah Carey, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

Vance sought to put politics aside when he visited Team USA athletes.

"The whole country, Democrat, Republican, independent, we're all rooting for you, and we're cheering for you," he told them.

"This is one of the few things that unites the entire country," the Republican said, adding: "I hope you win as many medals as possible."

Vance later met International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, who is overseeing her first Games since her election last March, at a heads of state dinner.

Their meeting had added significance because Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

There has been anger in Italy in the build-up to Milan-Cortina after it emerged that agents from the US immigration enforcement agency ICE will have an "advisory" role at the Games.

Rome has denied however that the agents will have any operational role on its soil.

- Chloe Kim's message -

One of the most prominent US athletes, reigning Olympic snowboard champion Chloe Kim, took apparent aim at President Donald Trump's divisive immigration crackdown.

In an Instagram post in which she announced her arrival, Kim said she was proud to represent a country that is "strongest when it embraces diversity, dignity, and hope".

"My parents left South Korea in search of a better future for their family. They left behind everything they knew so that my sisters and I could have the chance to one day live the American dream," she added.

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 game has been postponed until February 12, but other women's games did go ahead.

The USA started their bid to improve on their silver medal from the 2022 Beijing Olympics by beating the Czech Republic 5-1.

The men's downhill skiers got a second taste of the fearsome Stelvio piste in Bormio, where they will do battle for gold on Saturday in the first major competitive highlight of the Games.

The biggest star of these Olympics, American skier Lindsey Vonn, will test her injured leg on Friday after the first women's downhill training in Cortina d'Ampezzo was cancelled due to 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).

Snowboarding got underway with the men's big air competition in Livigno, where defending champion Su Yiming of China survived a major scare.

- 'Kick polluters out' -

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.

"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.

V.AbuAwwad--SF-PST