Summer Olympians begin torch relay for Milan Cortina Winter Games on 2-month countdown

ROME (AP) — Olympic swimming champion Gregorio Paltrinieri and fellow Summer athletes started off the torch relay for the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday — which marked exactly two months before the Feb. 6 opening ceremony.

Paltrinieri carried the sleek torch around the track of the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi at the Foro Italico to begin a trek covering 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) that will wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony.

“It’s a pleasure to be part of the Olympic movement movement, even if it’s Winter Olympics,” Paltrinieri said.

In all, there will be 10,001 torch bearers.

Giancarlo Peris, the final torch bearer from the 1960 Olympics in Rome, carried out the Olympic flame in a lantern to get the proceedings going. The 84-year-old Peris was 18 when he lit the cauldron at the Stadio Olimpico — which is located next to the Stadio dei Marmi — more than 65 years ago.

“I didn't think I would be here today,” Peris said with a chuckle.

Paltrinieri won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and has five Olympic medals in all. He and girlfriend Rossella Fiamingo, a fencer, carried Italy's flag at the closing ceremony for last year's Paris Games.

“I used to ski when I was when I was a kid, but then you know for obvious reasons I stopped skiing because it’s a little bit dangerous for me,” Paltrinieri said. “Skiing is my favorite (Winter Olympic sport). ... Alberto Tomba was one of my biggest idols.”

Paltrinieri handed off to retired fencer Elisa Di Francisca, who won two golds at the 2012 London Games.

Up next was Gianmarco Tamberi, the 2020 Olympic high jump champion.

Also due to carry the torch around Rome on Saturday were tennis player Matteo Berrettini, retired NBA player Andrea Bargnani and former motorcycle racer Max Biaggi.

The torch relay, which includes 60 city celebrations, will be in Naples for Christmas and in Bari for New Year’s Eve. It will reach 2006 Olympics host Turin on Jan 11.

The torch will arrive in Verona on Jan. 18 and pass through Cortina d’Ampezzo on Jan. 26 — on the 70th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1956 Winter Olympics held at the resort in the Dolomites.

There will also be a cauldron lit in Cortina on the night of the opening ceremony.

Local organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò noted that the torch relay will pass by all of the country's UNESCO World Heritage sites, of which Italy has more than any other country with 61.

“It's like a giant two-month advertisement,” Malagò said.

These games will be held across a large swath of northern Italy and the ceremony will be observed in four different locations, including Livigno (where snowboarding and freestyle skiing will be contested) and Predazzo (ski jumping).

Skating sports will be held in Milan; men’s Alpine skiing and ski mountaineering in Bormio; and women’s Alpine skiing, sliding sports and curling in Cortina.

The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday and Terni on Monday.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Former Italian track athlete Giancarlo Peris, 84, left, who was the final bearer of the Olympic torch for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, holds a lantern with the Olympic flame ahead of the start of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch ceremony in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. The journey will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri lights the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian high jumper and Olympic gold medalist Gianmarco Tamberi, left, receives the flame of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch from Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian high jumper and Olympic gold medalist Gianmarco Tamberi carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri, left, passes the flame of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch to Italian former foil fencer and Olympic and world champion Elisa Di Francisca in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri lights the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italian swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri carries the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch in Rome as it begins its journey through Italy, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, a journey that will conclude in Milan in February 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching attack, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.

At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defenses had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.

Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.

Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

Following Friday’s talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Workers and military inspect Ukrainian Fire Point's Flamingo missiles during handover to the military in an undisclosed location in Ukraine Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)