Winter Olympics briefing: opening ceremony delivers a love letter to Italy

The curtain rose on a moment of myth and magic: Cupid’s kiss awakening Psyche, a tender beginning that blossomed into a dazzling tribute to Italy itself. From opera and art to fashion, music and dance, the Milano Cortina opening ceremony unfolded as a vibrant celebration of culture. An explosion of colour, romance and theatrical flair that felt unmistakably Italian.

The spectacle then drifted into a dreamlike Fantasia chapter. The Italian actor Matilda De Angelis, wielding an enormous conductor’s baton, guided swirling dancers across San Siro, flanked by the larger-than-life figures of Italy’s operatic greats – Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini – brought to life with towering papier-mache bobble heads. Performers in radiant hues paraded in a joyous passeggiata, evoking the everyday elegance of an Italian stroll.

Matilda De Angelis performs with dancers dressed as the three great masters of Italian opera: Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Gioachino Rossini. Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

Mariah Carey appeared in shimmering white. She performed a soaring rendition of Volare, as if we needed a reminder that her voice belongs to far more than the holiday season. She finished with whistle notes high enough to rattle Milan’s crystal chandeliers.

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, and the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, were welcomed before the ceremony paid tribute to the late Giorgio Armani. Some of his final sketches were created for these very Games and a runway of red, green and white designs honoured his legacy. The sequence culminated in the presentation of a perfectly pressed Italian flag, ushering in the national anthem and a stadium awash in tricolour pride.

A tribute to the late, great Giorgio Armani. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

This opening ceremony was unlike any before it. While San Siro hosted the central spectacle, parallel celebrations in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno and Predazzo allowed mountain sports to share in the parade of nations without requiring athletes to descend to the city.

Back in Milan, five luminous shapes converged to form the Olympic rings, before the athletes’ parade began. Australia danced, Brazil cartwheeled, Norway sauntered in as if they were the most successful nation at the Winter Olympics, which they are.

Great Britain’s Lilah Fear and Brad Hall beamed in Milan and Cortina respectively while the USA were greeted with cheers despite concerns they would not be. That said, JD and Usha Vance were unsurprisingly booed when shown waving their American flags.

By the night’s end, Italy had delivered a love letter to beauty, creativity, heritage and the simple joy of gathering together. Let the Games begin.

Lilah Fear was Great Britain’s flag bearer at San Siro. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

In other news, Lindsey Vonn passed a key test of her damaged knee on Friday as she completed her first downhill training run, keeping alive her hopes of a fourth Olympic medal. Skiing with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, the American clocked a time of 1min 40.33sec in her first official run in Cortina d’Ampezzo, and simply responded “yeah” when asked if “all good” by reporters.

The training was delayed for more than an hour owing to fog hanging over the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and Vonn entertained her teammates by singing along to some Usher. The Swiss team, including the reigning downhill Olympic champion Corinne Suter, passed the time by playing Yahtzee.

Assuming her knee holds up, Lindsey Vonn will be able to approach the starting gate for Sunday’s race in the discipline in which she won her sole Olympic gold in 2010. Photograph: Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images

Italy’s Federica Brignone was the first to get all the way down the piste, with a time of 1:40.66, as she goes for a first Olympic gold after coming back from a double leg break just in time to compete.

“Some things were good, some things so-so,” Brignone said. “I’m trying to recover my leg because after skiing it’s always swollen and painful. I’m also working on my confidence because I’m still missing it.”

Italy’s Federica Brignone prowls the downhill training. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Jennifer Dodds said she and her partner Bruce Mouat had produced their best performances yet as the duo recorded another two wins in Friday’s round-robin matches in the mixed doubles curling competition. The pair beat Sweden 7-4 before a comprehensive 8-2 defeat of South Korea, with an end to spare in both games. “We said yesterday there were a couple of things we wanted to work on,” said Dodds. “We came out today and executed exactly what we wanted to do.”

The Team GB pair were also in a buoyant move after the American rapper Snoop Dogg asked for a photo. “We walked past and we were just kind of like ‘there’s Snoop Dogg’, a bit starstruck and we got ushered back,” said Dodds. “They said ‘he wants a selfie with you’ and we said ‘OK’. So, if Snoop Dogg’s team is reading this, can we please get the photo?”

Snoop Dogg, who was wearing a jacket that featured photos of the USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, is an honorary coach for the team and took to the ice himself to have a try at sweeping a stone.

Rapper, record producer, songwriter, actor … and curler? Snoop Dogg has a go at the sport alongside the USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Picture of the day

What’s one more for the collection? A fan wears a jacket covered in Olympic pin badges before the opening ceremony. Photograph: David Davies/PA

Further reading from the Guardian

• Lizzy Yarnold: Loneliness of village vanishes in joyful moment you pull on Team GB kit

• ‘Penisgate’ explainer: why inject acid down there, and what are the health risks?

• House of ice on a warming planet: Italy’s turn for the winter mirage

• Quad God and the Blade Angels: is the new USA Dream Team a group of figure skaters?

• Chock and Bates post world-best score as figure skating gets under way

Full schedule | Results | Medal table

What to look out for today

Times are all in local time in Milan and Cortina. For Sydney it is +10 hours, for London it is -1 hour, for New York it is -6 hours and San Francisco it is -9 hours.

• Curling – 10.05am, 2.35pm and 7.05pm: more mixed doubles awaits. Great Britain and the US – both unbeaten so far – face off in the second session.

• Freestyle skiing – 10.30am and 2pm: men’s and women’s freeski slopestyle qualification. Keep an eye out for Team GB’s Kirsty Muir and China’s American-born Eileen Gu.

• Alpine skiing – 11.30am🥇: the first gold medal event of the games is the men’s downhill. Switzerland may sweep the podium with Marco Odermatt, Franjo von Allmen and Alexis Monney.

• Ice hockey – 12.10pm, 2.40pm, 4.40pm and 9.10pm: women’s games continue with Canada finally getting on the ice after their Finland match was postponed on Thursday.

• Cross-country skiing – 1pm🥇: women’s 10km + 10km skiathlon where athletes use classic and free techniques in the same race, swapping halfway through.

• Speed skating – 4pm🥇: the Dutch have won four of the last five Olympics in the women’s 3000m, the first of two long distance events.

• Luge – 5pm and 6.32pm: two men’s singles runs get under way.

• Ski jumping – 5.45pm, 6.45pm and 7.57pm🥇: trial round and first round take place before the main decider.

• Snowboard – 7.30pm🥇: the men’s big air final promises to be one of the most show-stopping events. Japan are eying gold but Beijing 2022’s champion, China’s Yiming Su, will not let his title slip so easily.

• Figure skating – 7.45pm and 10.05pm: two team events take place with the men’s single skating and the ice dance.

The last word

Image captured using a remote net cam shows the Czech Republic’s Michaela Hesova and Daniela Pejsova attempt to clear the puck as Switzerland’s Lara Christen (not pictured) scores the equaliser. Switzerland came from 3-1 down to beat the Czechs 4-3 in a shootout. Photograph: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

We always believed that we can play over 60 minutes, and that’s what we did. That’s why we came back and won that game. It’s always important to come back, even if you’re nervous, just play your best game, and that’s it. We never stopped believing – Switzerland’s Laura Zimmermann after her team scored twice in the last 11 minutes of regulation against the Czech Republic, forcing overtime and a shootout, which they won.

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