Summary of the 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
USAT’s Jordan Mendoza and Sydney Henderson report from outside the opening ceremony in Milan, telling you about the best moments and what you might have missed.
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- The opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was broadcast from three separate locations in northern Italy.
- The NBC broadcast featured hosts Mary Carrillo, Terry Gannon and former snowboarder Shaun White.
- NBC’s coverage was notable for being an improvement over the 2024 Paris broadcast, despite some logistical challenges.
LIVIGNO, Italy — There’s nothing quite like the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. During this ceremony, even a heavy rainstorm did not stop the parade down the Seine.
The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will face a very different reality. With three separate clusters and a total of six competition venues across northern Italy, from the Alps to the Dolomites to Milan, these competitions were the most widely spread in history, which NBC made clear at the beginning of the broadcast, and it was understandably difficult to combine the programs.
The network was trying to recover after Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson stepped in during the broadcast of the Paris Opening Ceremonies, disrupting the broadcast and clouding the special. NBC’s production of Super Bowl 60 on Sunday had no celebrity guest hosts this time around, as most of the sports broadcasting group’s talent bench, including Olympic host Mike Tirico, had to be seen in Northern California.
Savannah Guthrie was scheduled to co-host with Terry Gannon, but had to leave as she and her family dealt with the disappearance and kidnapping allegations of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy.
Mary Carrillo played the role brilliantly in a short period of time. She and Gannon appropriately addressed Guthrie’s absence in the 20 minutes between the start of the NBC broadcast and the start of the ceremony.
“Certainly, we don’t have a beloved member of our team,” Gannon said.
Joining Gannon and Carrillo is Shaun White, a snowboarder who represented the United States in five Winter Olympics and is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. He was in the booth for a brief introduction at the start of the show, but bowed out until the national parade needed to fill airtime, a wise decision by NBC executives. White, who certainly has the credentials, knows snowboarders well and had his own moments, offering insight into them. However, it was an opportunity for all participating countries to tell their personal stories.
Okay, Sean. You have traveled the world twice. Whoever got in his ear at the start of the set and urged him to dismiss “great” over and over again was enthusiastic.
Despite his flaws, White is a natural on TV, unlike Manning and Clarkson who were in Paris, and his inclusion makes sense. He was good at adding the perspective of a former athlete, and added an amusing anecdote about how he was not asked to walk during the opening ceremony due to competition schedules and returned to the Olympic Village early in the morning. He left a lot of promise when he made the transition to sportswashing for Saudi Arabia. The promotion of White’s winter sports circuit, Snow League (which, of course, has a deal with NBC) in its first year was a bit of a bummer.
Carrillo at least tried to keep the train on the tracks by talking about Lindsey Vonn. She asked questions that moved the conversation forward. Her delivery had a lightness that matched the occasion. She tried to provide humor. At times, Carrillo sounded like he was analyzing real sporting events, which kind of worked.
Gannon mentioned the protests in Iran, and Carrillo went on to point out that the third act of the ceremony was about peace. They flattered the Ukrainian players. However, there was no mention of Israel being booed inside the San Siro stadium.
The national parade was lackluster as players marched in different locations, including San Siro, around Cortina and at a snow park in Livigno. The graphics department should have been busier and let viewers know which cluster they were looking at as they explored each cluster on air. A camera at U.S. flag bearer Erin Jaccon’s family home in Ocala, Florida led to a heartwarming moment.
NBC threw it to special correspondent Snoop Dogg early on, but returned to him only for an interview with Jamaican bobsledder and U.S. flag bearer Frank Del Duca. After his talent became a huge success at NBC in Paris, it was interesting to see that the network didn’t give him a major role throughout the show. Perhaps there’s an element of not wanting to shoot all the Snoop bullets at once, but how many of us are going to complain about more double Gs in our household?
What makes Snoop so essential, beyond his entertainment value and camera presence, is that he actually appears to have done his homework and communicates a legitimate investment in athletes. NBC deserves credit for maintaining the partnership.
Not that NBC didn’t lean into the celebrity angle. Twelve minutes into the broadcast, Taylor Swift appeared and handed out props to America’s leading athletes. It felt like a coincidence until I learned she released the music video for “Opalite” on Friday.
Another disappointing aspect of NBC was the interview with Chloe Kim. Reporter Tina Smith left meat on the bone and instead acted like a fan when asking about the shoulder injury.
The ceremony began with a montage of what we, the world, love about Italy and what Italy has given the world: opera, music, literature, Renaissance art, espresso, wine, natural beauty, architecture.
The theme of the ceremony was “Armonia”, which means “harmony” in Italian. There was a skit of a self-aware paparazzi transformed into the somewhat creepy mascot head of famous Italian composers Rossini, Verdi and Puccini.
Gannon stuck with the narration, adding a shout-out from former North Carolina State University basketball coach Jim Valvano, who would have made the late Paisan proud. Carrillo was never overbearing when it came to adding points.
Mariah Carey sang Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu, dipinto di Blu” in Italian, followed by one of her most iconic songs, “Nothing Is Impossible”. She played a falsetto note, but there was no lip-syncing controversy this time.
The introduction of Italian President Sergio Mattarella was very good. NBC didn’t overdo it, harping on the presence of US Vice President J.D. Vance, who was two spots ahead of IOC President Kirsty Coventry, and only lingering briefly on Mr. Gannon and his wife, Usha, when he mentioned him and his wife, Usha, during the Americans’ parade entrance.
Much of what plagued NBC’s coverage was beyond NBC’s control. In some ways it’s tragic. The network deserves credit for realizing its mistake two years ago, acting swiftly in light of Gasly’s situation, and juggling another major sporting event. It wasn’t perfect, but it was completely disjointed, just as these games foreshadow.
