OS invigs i Milano.
But have smaller ceremonies in three additional locations.
Antholz, on the other hand, is left without and the biathletes are more or less isolated in the resort.
– It’s boring if I’m honest, says Viktor Brandt.
Viktor Brandt.
Photo: PETTER ARVIDSON / BILDBYRÅN
Elvira Öberg.
Photo: MATHIAS BERGELD / BILDBYRÅN
On Friday, the Olympics will be inaugurated in Milan Cortina at the classic football arena San Siro.
In addition to the official opening, Cortina will also have an opening where the fire will be lit. There will also be smaller ceremonies in Livigno and in Predazzo.
In Cortina, Sara Hector will carry the Swedish flag and in Livigno, it is Walter Wallberg who gets the honor.
On the other hand, the biathlon in Antholz, which is just over an hour from Cortina, will not have any ceremony at all.
– You’ve seen some on TV, it’s usually not the most eventful, says Viktor Brandt.
– It’s obviously a bit boring, but we compete on the first day of the Olympics (second) if you run the mixed relay. So we probably wouldn’t have been there anyway, says Elvira Öberg.
“To be honest”
The opening of the Olympics is one thing, says Viktor Brandt, but missing the feeling of an Olympic village is worse.
The 2026 Games are the most spread out in Olympic history and the cluster solution makes it almost impossible to travel to another place.
Between the main cities of Milan and Cortina it is over 40 miles. By car, the journey would take closer to five hours, or between five and eight hours by train.
For the biathletes, it means more or less isolation at the hotel in Antholz and an everyday life far from life in an Olympic village.
– I think it’s boring if I’m honest, says Viktor Brandt.
At an Olympics, you want all sports in the same place, he says.
– And as a big hockey fan, I would have liked to see some Olympic hockey. But I also think that in terms of performance, I think it’s good to be in the same place.
– Just that whole Olympic feeling, it’s clear that it’s sad to miss it, especially at your first Olympics.
Ella Halvarsson is just like Brandt an Olympic debutant and shares the feeling.
– It’s a bit of a shame, she says.
– But there would also have been a trade-off: What takes energy? While wanting to experience everything. So it’s probably little as it is, but it would have been cool to have something maybe, something small.
