This year in Milan, the city where I was born and where I live, the first Distributed Olympics in history will be held. My city, together with Cortina, will host the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games 2026.

I had never been to an Olympics, and having one on my doorstep was too good an opportunity to pass up.

In November 2025, I therefore decided to get tickets to see some events: Milan isn’t close to the mountains, so no skiing, and I settled on hockey, specifically women’s hockey.
I won’t deny that the choice was also influenced by the exorbitant prices, which honestly I didn’t feel like spending more on: I was more interested in the Olympic atmosphere than the match itself.

And I have to say it was really worth it!

The Olympic atmosphere really does exist: it’s hard to describe but the most electrifying part is probably the mix of people in the stands who laugh, joke around and cheer for their team with the utmost respect.

The match went well too – the Italian Women’s National Team won 4-1 against France, so the experience was really excellent.

The only sore point, if we’re being critical, relates to the sports facility of the Ice Hockey Arena Santa Giulia in Milan: the arena is complete and fully operational but the surrounding areas aren’t. There are basically large ditches and unpaved areas hidden behind fencing where I hope there will be gardens one day.

And then the location is really inconvenient to reach and you can only use buses but no subway or trains.

But I don’t want to be too critical – I’m so excited about having participated in my first Olympics that obviously I’m fine with everything!