Bruno Colli: 70 Years of Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games History

He didn’t take his eyes off the flame. A few kilometers from Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the north of Italy, on a course tailor-made for his great age, Bruno Colli held it upright for the third time, after 1956 and 2006. Dressed in a white tracksuit flocked with the logo of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games (from February 6 to 22), immaculate hat and gloves, he walked with his head held high, turned towards the Dolomite massifs which have closed its horizon for ninety-three years.

Monday January 26, the mercury shows 0°C. Nothing to do with the −24°C seventy years ago to the day, at the start of the VII^es Winter Games, already in Cortina. Such coldness that the photographers were unable to immortalize the moment, their cameras having frozen. Mr. Colli remembers it: he almost wanted to get rid of the torch to go and warm up. But it will still remain “strongest moment” of these Olympics, as much as a key stage in his life, as he tells the Monde.

A carpenter in this large still agricultural town, surrounded by legendary peaks such as Tofane (3,244 meters) or Monte Cristallo (3,221 meters), he is then responsible for guiding the Soviet and Nordic teams to their training and test locations. An accomplished cross-country skier, he rarely practices downhill skiing, due to lack of “money to use the facilities”. “Before 1956, people here were quite poor. But, little by little, well-being improved”tell M. Colli

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