Here are the medals from Milan-Cortina

Two sides of the same coin, two regions, two provinces, two cities for a unique edition. Milan-Cortina, when it won the right to organise the 2026 event in Lausanne in 2019, was a never-before-seen candidature. And even now that the project is being realised, step by step, it continues to be unique. The presentation of the medals in Venice, in the seat of the Veneto Region Council, reinforces this duplicity. The medals are essential, simple and beautiful, a concentrate of Italian taste and design. In the centre are the five circles in the Olympic medals (with a blue ribbon) and the three agitos in the Paralympic ones (with a red ribbon), with a cut that divides them in half. Nothing else, on the back the logo of the event. That dry line, which cuts them, looks like the verticality of the Olympia of the Tofane, and already we are in the Dolomites, or even the double life of each athlete, the fatigue and vertigo of victory, the technicians, the coaches who followed the preparation and the podium dreamed of and conquered. At the centre, there is the athlete and there are the symbols of all times, hoops and agitos. These are the Games, nothing more, athletes and excellence. And this is the sport that unites and fascinates, almost in a vortex like the one created by the line dividing the medals.

The medals are the result of collaboration between the Organising Committee and the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, which provided recycled metals recovered from production waste. They have a diameter of 8 centimetres and a thickness of 1.3 centimetres. They weigh about half a kilo and the gold ones, next to the 500 grams of silver, have 6 grams of gold. They will be moulded and cast in induction furnaces powered entirely by renewable energy, with environmentally sustainable packaging made from certified materials and minimal use of plastic. There are 195 events between the Games (6-22 February 2026) and the Paralympics (6-15 March) with a total of 1,146 medals awarded. "It is a project that was born internally," Raffaella Paniè, Brand, identity and look of the Games Director of Milan-Cortina 2026, proudly explains, "thanks to the great passion of the group of designers, graphic designers and brand experts and the collaboration with the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato. The project celebrates the strength of differences: two unique halves coming together through the Olympic and Paralympic symbol to create a strong and unified message". "Now athletes around the world can start dreaming," said Federica Pellegrini, one of the two godmothers of the presentation, together with Paralympic athlete Francesca Porcellato, who in 13 editions of the Games has won 14 medals in three different disciplines.

Great satisfaction also for the other protagonists of the presentation, including Andrea Varnier, ceo of the Milan-Cortina Foundation. The president of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, stressed 'the tenacity of the project and the importance of Malagò's relations'; that of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, 'the iconic moment represented by the medals'. The Minister for Sport, Andrea Abodi, in video connection, announced that, for the first time, as he had promised in Paris, 'the Olympic and Paralympic prizes will be tax-free'. There was also great emotion for the newly elected president of CONI, Luciano Buonfiglio: 'This edition will show us to Italy and the world as builders of certainties'; the president of the IPC, Marco Giunio De Sanctis, recalled 'the importance of a CONI-CIP synergy to bring sport everywhere in the territory'. Giovanni Malagò, president of the Milan-Cortina Foundation, summed up the adventure as follows: 'These Games were an unthinkable puzzle. Everything was designed in an experimental, innovative, Italian way: we cooked the dish with what we had and the medals are the heartbeat of the Italian heart'. And of an Italy that believes in it: 'The Games,' explained Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, 'will leave the country with infrastructures and works that will remain. The Olympics is a bridge and brings peace and my wish is to see athletes from all over the world competing'.