The China Mail - IOC chief Coventry in tears as 2026 Winter Games torch relay sets off

Addressing guests during the torch ceremony at the Olympia archaeological museum as the first woman to head the Olympic movement, a tearful Coventry stressed the power of sport to unite.

"These Games come at a critical part in our history," she said, her voice cracking.

"I wasn't supposed to get emotional," she added to applause.

"In a divided world that we live in today, the Games hold a truly symbolic place. It is our duty, our responsibility, to ensure that the athletes from around the world can come together peacefully," she said.

Carried initially by Greek rower Petros Gaidatzis and then jointly with Italian cross-country skiing champion Stefania Belmondo, the relay began the countdown to the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, which will open on February 6.

The pair ran from the museum to the grove in Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Games, where the heart of modern Olympics founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin is kept, and handed over the torch to Italian luge great Armin Zoeggeler.

The flame ceremony was flanked by sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, the patron god of the ancient Olympics.

The ceremony to light the Olympic flame is usually held among the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, near the stadium where the Olympics were born in 776 BC.

But a rainy weather forecast -- which proved mistaken -- raised concerns that the sun's rays would not be able to sufficiently heat up the parabolic mirror used by actresses dressed as ancient priestesses to light the flame.

That forced organisers to head indoors for Wednesday's ceremony where they used a flame lit on Monday, during an outdoor rehearsal under the sun.

Following a December 4 handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympics were revived in 1896, the flame will head to Rome for a 63-day, 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) course through Italy's major cities and the archaeological site of Pompeii.

The Games themselves will take place at various venues spanning a vast area from Milan to the Dolomite mountains in Italy's north-east.

Ice sports will be held in Milan while Bormio and Cortina will host alpine skiing.

Across the Dolomites, the biathlon will be in Anterselva and Nordic skiing in Val di Fiemme, with Livigno in the Italian Alps hosting snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

The Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 6-15.

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