MILAN (AP) — A small army keeps every Olympics running around the clock. At the Milan Cortina Winter Games, some of them are seasoned veterans dating back 20 years.
About 18,000 volunteers are spread out across
northern Italy, blanketing the venues in a sea of navy blue uniforms.
The Associated Press this week interviewed three Italian women who are volunteering in Milan. Two of them volunteered for the 2006 Turin Games — Italy's second time hosting the Winter Olympics — and the third worked for its local organizing committee.
Cristina Romagnoli traded her Italian heritage to be Irish for a few weeks in 2006. As a volunteer in the Alps west of Turin, she was assigned to Ireland’s athletes.
“We were supporting the team almost 24 hours a day, and to thank the work of the volunteers they even invited us to parade with them during the closing ceremony,” she said.
Romagnoli, then 25, has few photos from those Games — a time before iPhones — but treasures her pins, volunteer guide book and lunch vouchers as souvenirs.
When the Milan Cortina Olympics were announced, she was ready for round two. In Milan, where she’s from, she’s volunteering at the short track speedskatingvenue.
“We might help them with their clothes, or with the maintenance of the arena’s protection cushions,” she said. “It is about giving our availability and support for the whole competition, for any need there might be either during the game and during the training sessions as well.”
Romagnoli, now 45, is ready for her daughters, 10 and 11, to take the torch next.
“I wanted them to breathe what is really the Olympic spirit, the Olympic sports values,” she said. “I hope that when they will have the right age to participate, they will do it either in my place or together with me.”
Angela Frisina was 50 when she volunteered in Turin. She felt caught in a never-ending cycle between work and home. So when a colleague suggested she apply for the Winter Games, she was intrigued.
Born in Reggio Calabria but raised in Turin, she wanted to give back to her adopted hometown.
She spent the Games at a hotel that hosted sponsors and delegations, her duties ranging from giving them directions for the venues and gift shops to doling out restaurant tips.
And the experience changed her life.
“I didn’t go to the cinema. Just work, son, home,” she told the AP. “And for me, these Olympic Games opened the window. The door!”
She joined a Turin Olympics volunteer alumni group and has spent the next two decades giving her time across Italy, including at last year's Vatican Jubilee and the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022.
Now the 70-year-old nonna — “grandmother” in Italian — is volunteering as an usher, helping people find their seats at the women's ice hockey arena in the Milan suburbs. She video chats with her 5-year-old grandson between shifts to tell him about the people she's met.
Even though she's remained in Italy, Frisina says talking to tourists from countries near and far has broadened her horizons.
“I have visited all the world,” she said.
Olivia Azzalin found love ahead of the Turin Olympics.
She worked for the local organizing committee as a sport director assistant between 2001 and 2003.
Amid preparations for the Games, she fell for a colleague and by the time the cauldron was lit in 2006, the couple was expecting a child and planning their wedding.
“I think that Olympic Games is a very good Tinder,” she joked.
Azzalin, then 34, had left the organizing committee but took a temporary job with Visa, one of the Olympics' biggest sponsors, to work at a hotel where Visa hosted guests and staff.
“I didn't want to miss it,” she said.
She gave birth a few months after the Games and two decades later, she and her son were among the first to apply to volunteer, though he ultimately couldn't join her due to university exams.
So Azzalin goes alone to the Olympic Village in Milan, the city where her family has lived for nearly 12 years. The 53-year-old has assembled chairs, earning a pin of thanks from the Finnish delegation, and helped athletes sort their trash and recycling in the Village’s cafeteria.
“It’s funny because maybe you saw them the night before on TV,” she said.
Her husband, meanwhile, has stayed home.
“He said that the Olympic Games in Torino was already dangerous for him,” she laughed, “as he came back home with a wife and child.”
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Vasilisa Stepanenko and Andrea Rosa in Milan contributed to this report.
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AP Winter Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
