{"id":278167,"date":"2026-02-07T01:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278167\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:38:07","slug":"who-is-olympic-cauldron-lighter-alberto-tomba-la-bomba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278167\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Olympic cauldron lighter Alberto Tomba \u201cLa Bomba?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two of Italy\u2019s most decorated Olympic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/milano-cortina-2026\/sports\/alpine-skiing\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">alpine skiing<\/a> stars,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/alberto-tomba\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alberto Tomba<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/athletes\/deborah-compagnoni\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Deborah Compagnoni<\/a>, brought the Opening Ceremony of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/milano-cortina-2026\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026<\/a> to a climactic conclusion on Friday (February 6), igniting the cauldron in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time in Olympic history, the ceremony concluded with the lighting of two Olympic cauldrons: one in Milan and another in\u00a0Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo.<\/p>\n<p>Known affectionately during his prime as \u201cTomba La Bomba\u201d\u00a0because of his\u00a0aggressive\u00a0approach on the piste, the Italian legend\u00a0won five Olympic medals between 1988 and 1998.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 59-year-old Tomba made a stunning debut in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/olympic-games\/calgary-1988\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Calgary 1988<\/a>, winning both the giant slalom and the slalom gold medals. He then successfully defended his giant slalom crown, becoming the first Alpine skier to win gold in the same event.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tomba broke new ground in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/olympic-games\/lillehammer-1994\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lillehammer 1994<\/a> as the first Alpine skier to win medals in three different Olympic Games with his silver in the giant slalom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The three-time Olympic world champion and fellow Italian alpine skiing icon Compagnoni were raised towards the cauldron at\u00a0Arco della Pace to light the flame. Compagnoni had an equally impressive pedigree, winning gold in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/olympic-games\/albertville-1992\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Albertville 1992<\/a>, Lillehammer\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.olympics.com\/en\/olympic-games\/nagano-1998\" node=\"[object Object]\" data-tracking-disabled=\"true\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nagano 1998<\/a> as well as silver in Nagano.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of Italy\u2019s most decorated Olympic\u00a0alpine skiing stars,\u00a0Alberto Tomba\u00a0and\u00a0Deborah Compagnoni, brought the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-278167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}