Aussies on show as Olympics splits athletes parade

Australian flag bearers Jakara Anthony and Matt Graham have led a small but enthusiastic team in the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, with the parade of athletes split over four locations.

In an Olympic first, the main ceremony was held at the San Siro Stadium in Milan while athletes marched at different clusters across Italy. With competition venues dotting an area of about 22,000km it will be the most spread-out Games in Winter Olympics history.

The largest Australian contingent was in Livigno, some 250km from Milan in the Italian alps, where Olympic moguls medallists Anthony and Graham led a 23-strong team that includes other freestyle skiers, as well as the team’s snowboarders.

There were five ice skaters marching in Milan, 10 sliders and alpine skiers in Cortina and only two in Predazzo, with Australia’s female cross country quartet skipping the ceremony to prepare for the skiathlon on Saturday (local time).

Wearing traditional green with gold beanies, Anthony and Graham rallied the troops with a traditional “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi oi oi,” before setting off.

In another shift, the Olympic flame was lit in two cauldrons with former Italian champion skiers Deborah Compagnoni and Alberto Tomba given the honour in Milan and current alpine star Sofia Goggia, who will for compete Italy next week, lighting the cauldron in Cortina, 400km away.

During the two-hour long ceremony American songstress Mariah Carey delivered the iconic Volare in Italian, there was a tribute to famous composers like Giuseppe Verdi and the late design king Giorgio Armani at the main stadium.

South African-American actor Charlize Theron also made a surprise appearance as the United Nations Messenger of Peace.

Tenor Andrea Bocelli wowed the 61,000 ticket-holders in Milan, while Italian pop singer Laura Pausini performed the Italian national anthem before Italian President Sergio Mattarella formally opened the 25th Winter Olympics.

Mattarella was introduced in a video suggesting he was arriving at San Siro by a tram driven by Italian motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry, overseeing her first Games since succeeding Thomas Bach last year, told the athletes to “enjoy every second”.

“You’ll show us what it means to be human. To dream. To overcome. To respect one another. To care for each other. You’ll show us that strength isn’t just about winning - it’s about courage, empathy and heart,” she said.

“Thank you for believing in the magic of the Olympic Games. The spirit of the Olympic Games is about so much more than sport.

“Let these Games be a celebration of what unites us - of everything that makes us human. This is the magic of the Olympic Games: inspiring us all to be the best that we can be - together.”

The February 6-22 Olympics bring together around 2900 athletes from 92 countries who will compete for 116 gold medals. They are in first Games in Italy since Torino 2006.

After Vancouver (2010) and Sochi (2014), Asia hosted the last two Olympics in Pyeongchang (2018) and Beijing (2022).