![\"Filippo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/filippo-ganna-68e7bc66cec1c.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The ceremony will take place inside the historic Panathenaic Stadium, where the flame will be passed to Ganna and Paolini ahead of its flight to Rome Fiumicino Airport. From there, the Italian leg of the relay gets under way, travelling across the country before arriving at the iconic San Siro for the Winter Games\u2019 opening ceremony on 6 February 2026.<\/p>\n
The relay will run until 22 February, marking Italy\u2019s first hosting of a Winter Olympics since Turin 2006 and the first Games to be split between two major regions \u2014 Lombardy and the Dolomites \u2014 for alpine, ice and endurance events.<\/p>\n
Why Ganna? A modern Olympic star with a rare multi-discipline record<\/p>\n
Ganna\u2019s selection is far from ceremonial. The 29-year-old has become one of Italy\u2019s defining Olympians of the last decade. On the track, he powered the Italian team pursuit squad to gold at Tokyo 2021, breaking the world record along the way. At Paris 2024, he delivered one of the standout road performances of the Games, claiming silver in the time trial behind Remco Evenepoel and adding bronze in the team pursuit.<\/p>\n
His blend of global pedigree, national symbolism and crossover appeal \u2014 dominating both time trials and track endurance events \u2014 places him in a small group of modern riders with multi-discipline Olympic medals.<\/p>\n
Ganna also arrives at this honour during one of the most important career transitions of his recent seasons. While continuing as the cornerstone of Italy\u2019s track programme, he has increasingly doubled down on road ambitions, collecting marquee time-trial victories and eyeing deeper runs in Grand Tour GCs and one-day racing. His prominence makes him an unmistakable ambassador for an Olympics taking place on home soil.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ganna has been one of Italian cycling’s leading lights over the last decade<\/p>\n
A moment of national pride ahead of Italy\u2019s biggest sporting event of the decade<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s organising committee has leaned heavily into recognisable national sporting figures to build momentum for Milan\u2013Cortina, and Ganna\u2019s role reinforces his status as one of the country\u2019s most beloved athletes. Carrying the flame from Athens \u2014 the symbolic heart of the Olympic movement \u2014 is widely regarded as one of the highest honours bestowed on active athletes.<\/p>\n
With preparations for the 2026 Winter Games accelerating, Ganna will take centre stage long before any medals are awarded, becoming one of the faces of Italy\u2019s most significant sporting celebration in 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ceremony will take place inside the historic Panathenaic Stadium, where the flame will be passed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,74722,59639,16061,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-322116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-filippo-ganna","12":"tag-ineos-grenadiers","13":"tag-olympic-games","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}