On the evening of Feb. 22, the 25th Winter Olympic Games came to a close at the historic Verona Arena in Italy, a venue with a two-thousand-year history.
The closing ceremony, themed "Beauty in Action," drew inspiration from Italy's rich cultural and artistic heritage, incorporating elements of opera, music, dance, film, design, and technology. Holding the closing ceremony at the Verona Arena, a large ancient Roman amphitheater, marked the first time in Olympic history that a ceremony has been held at a UNESCO World Heritage site.
According to Xinhua News Agency, 22-year-old Su Yiming entered the arena as the flag bearer for the Chinese sports delegation, holding high the five-star red flag. Su secured the Chinese delegation's first gold medal of these Games in the men's snowboard slopestyle event and also claimed a bronze medal in the men's big air competition.
For the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the Chinese sports delegation consisted of 286 members, including 126 athletes who competed across 7 sports, 15 disciplines, and 91 events—setting new records for the largest Chinese delegation and the most events entered at an overseas Winter Olympics. Since the Games began, Chinese athletes have earned a total of 15 medals (5 gold, 4 silver, and 6 bronze), achieving the country's best-ever result at an overseas Winter Olympics.
The Games adopted a decentralized hosting model, with 93 delegations participating, including Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and the United Arab Emirates, all making their Winter Olympic debut. Among the 2,880 athletes competing, women represented a record 47% of participants. The Norwegian delegation topped the medal table with 18 gold, 12 silver, and 11 bronze medals.
As the closing ceremony drew to an end, the Olympic flag was gradually lowered and passed by Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala and Cortina d'Ampezzo Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi to IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who then handed it over to representatives of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, hosts of the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Coventry declared the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics closed. The Olympic flame was simultaneously extinguished in both Milan and Cortina.
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