Author: Veronica Sertori
Date: 19-12-2025

 

Between the Alpine peaks and the lights of Milan, the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games embody the spirit of a changing country. After Cortina 1956 and Turin 2006, Italy once again takes center stage with an Olympics that unfolds not in a single place but across many: a mosaic of territories, identities, and values coming together in one shared narrative. It is the first officially “distributed” edition in the history of the Olympic Games, a model of sustainability and collaboration that redefines the way we think about major events.

The research followed an integrated approach, combining a qualitative phase, based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, with a quantitative phase structured through an online questionnaire and multivariate statistical techniques.

The aim was to analyze how expectations and values associated with the event are reflected in the public, in order to identify the key drivers and strategies capable of generating real engagement and a shared legacy.

The sample

The online questionnaire collected 378 responses, with a balanced gender distribution and a strong presence of participants from Northern Italy, particularly from Valtellina and Milan, areas that are directly involved in the Games. The respondents showed a general interest in sports, both as spectators and practitioners, with many engaging in multiple disciplines. Television, radio, and social media emerged as the main information channels, confirming the relevance of traditional media alongside the growing importance of digital platforms.
Participation intentions vary: only a few respondents have already purchased tickets, while most plan to follow the event from home. The factors that encourage engagement include both practical elements, such as accessibility and transportation, and symbolic ones, such as legacy and the promotion of host territories, dimensions that lie at the very heart of the Olympic project.

Overall, the evaluation of the event is positive, though opinions are heterogeneous. The adjectives most frequently associated with Milano-Cortina 2026 are “complex” and “engaging,” while “sustainable” received lower scores, revealing a dissonance with the core values of the event. Among sponsors, Valtellina Taste of Emotion is perceived as the brand that is most consistent with the Olympic spirit, thanks to its strong territorial and value-based identity.
Finally, the bivariate analyses add further insights: those who practice sports or actively seek information tend to evaluate the event more positively. Likewise, those who plan to attend in person express higher satisfaction, confirming that engagement and knowledge are key levers for strengthening the emotional connection with Milano-Cortina 2026.

Four dimensions, five audiences: interpreting the complexity of Milano-Cortina 2026

Understanding how the public perceives a complex event like Milano-Cortina 2026 means reading between the lines of their responses. The factor analysis helped to organize this complexity, summarizing the evaluations into four key dimensions that reflect the different meanings attributed to the event:

• Community and legacy, referring to the social, economic, and territorial benefits generated by the Games.
• Visibility and offer, linked to the international reputation and organizational quality of the event.
• Sustainability, focused on environmental responsibility and the reuse of existing infrastructure.
• Sports promotion, highlighting the Games as a source of entertainment and a driver for sports diffusion.

Based on these results, a cluster analysis identified five homogeneous audience groups, each with its own way of interpreting and experiencing the Olympics. While the segmentation was built through cluster analysis, the description of the groups also integrates results from bivariate analyses and linear discriminant analysis to provide a more comprehensive and interpretive overview.

The Sustainability-Minded
This group shows high sensitivity to environmental sustainability. The discriminant analysis places them away from the emotional adjectives and closer to “complex,” reflecting a rational and technical view of the event. The Sustainables share values such as environmental respect and infrastructure reuse but do not perceive these aspects as defining features of Milano-Cortina 2026. The bivariate analyses also reveal that they tend to be less informed about the event, showing low but potentially activatable engagement.

The Spotlight Audience
They are attracted by the spectacle and the international visibility that the Olympics brings to Italy. Positioned near the adjectives “exclusive” and “forward-looking,” they see the Games as a matter of prestige and long-term image. The bivariate results show that this cluster includes the highest proportion of people who have already purchased tickets but also the least sporty in practice and interest. Their involvement is focused on the overall experience of the event rather than on its deeper values.

The Unplugged
Critical and distant, they are the least engaged and least informed group. They do not actively seek news and have no intention of participating or following the event. Strategically, this cluster offers little potential, as it shows no signs of future interest or openness.

The Balanced Enthusiasts
This is the most receptive and positive cluster toward the event. They show favorable attitudes across almost all dimensions and a strong tendency to stay informed and participate. The discriminant analysis places them close to “engaging,” “innovative,” and “identity-driven,” indicating that they see the Olympics as a collective, modern, and inspiring experience. They represent the group with the highest overall evaluation of the event and the most balanced profile.

The Sport-Driven Fans
Driven by a strong passion for sports, they view Milano-Cortina 2026 mainly as a competitive and spectacular event. The bivariate results show that they are the most active athletes and best informed, though they plan to follow the Games mostly remotely while showing great interest in related events. In the discriminant analysis, they are also positioned in the positive area of the emotional-participatory function, near “motivating” and “engaging.”

From analysis to strategies

The final phase sought to identify which perceptions most strongly influence overall attitudes toward Milano-Cortina 2026. The linear regression showed that perceiving the Olympics as motivating, engaging, and forward-looking has the greatest impact on positive attitudes.
Based on these results, the reflection turned into strategic proposals, designed not as universal solutions but tailored to the different sensitivities that emerged.
For the Sustainables, a push-type realignment campaign was envisioned, using articles and short digital content to reintroduce the founding values of the event through accessible and informative language. For the Mediatic, an emotional and symbolic campaign titled “The World Looks Here,” centered on a TV and radio spot with an epic tone, aimed to highlight international visibility and national pride. The Balanced group finds expression in a territorial initiative, “Win the Olympics,” consisting of micro-events in Milan and experiential activities linked to Valtellina Taste of Emotion, designed to turn their positive attitude into real participation. Finally, for the Sportive, “You Are the Flame” was conceived, a hybrid and participatory experience with symbolic night skiing events, luminous torches, and a digital contest celebrating the Olympic spirit and maintaining engagement even from afar.

Conclusions

Milano-Cortina 2026 represents much more than a sporting event: it is an experiment in territorial collaboration and sustainability, the first diffused Winter Olympics in history.
Its strength lies in the ability to unite diverse territories around a shared vision. Without authentic participation, no event can leave a lasting mark; but when citizens, institutions, and companies recognize themselves in the values of the Games, the Olympics become a catalyst for identity, trust, and collective pride. The future of the Milano-Cortina project will depend on the ability to turn Olympic values into concrete, accessible, and inclusive experiences, communicating sustainability as a lived value, territoriality as a shared opportunity, and sport as a universal language that unites. Only then can the Olympics truly fulfill its promise of a living legacy, built day by day by those who inhabit it.