Early Power Disruption At Stadio Olimpico Del Ghiaccio Marked The Start of Mixed Doubles Curling at The Winter Olympics

Constructed in 1955, Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio has served as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1956 games.

Early Power Disruption At Stadio Olimpico Del Ghiaccio Marked The Start of Mixed Doubles Curling at The Winter Olympics

Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio (Image via Fox News)

The Winter Olympics 2026 unofficially got underway on Wednesday with the curling mixed doubles preliminary rounds at the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio. It wasn’t the best start for the event, as five minutes into the event, the power went out at the iconic venue and interrupted play.

The stadium lights flickered during play, halting it briefly. There were no major disruptions to the four round-robin preliminary games happening at the time. As soon as the lights came back on, the crowd erupted in cheers and clapping for the athletes.

Millions have landed in Cortina D’Ampezzo and Milan in the last weeks in the wake of the Winter Olympics. Amidst the power outage, the players used up the time to skate around the ice. Meanwhile, Swedish curler Isabella Wranna and South Korea’s Seonyoung Kim were seen doing air guitars with their brooms.

The Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio is one of the oldest venues used for the winter games. Inaugurated in 1955, the stadium was used for the opening and closing ceremonies during the 1956 Winter Olympics hosted by Cortina D’Ampezzo. It hosted the figure skating competitions and the main ice hockey games during those times. After all, curling didn’t become a consistent part of the Olympic program until 1998 in Nagano.

Curling had previously appeared in the first Winter Olympics, before being slotted back into being a demonstration sport for the 1932, 1988, and 1992 games. From 1998 to 2014, there were only two events, the men’s and women’s team events.

The mixed doubles was introduced in 2018 in PyeongChang. The Canadian pair of Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won the first gold medal in the event. Four years ago, Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner defeated the Norwegian pair in the gold medal game.

The first day featured four games. Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada secured their first wins of the event. Reigning gold medalists Italy and the emerging favorites United States started their season on Thursday. The Americans defeated the silver medalists from Beijing in their first game, while the Italians got the better of the Koreans.

After two days of action, the Canadian husband-wife pair, Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman, are leading with three wins in three games, closely followed by the Great Britain team.

Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio and its James Bond connection

The Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio, situated on the banks of the Bolte River north of Cortina, was a symbol of Italian re-emergence following World War II. The Italians hosting the Winter Olympics in 1956 cemented them becoming a true power in winter sports.

Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio (Image via Milano Cortina 2026 Official Website)
Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio (Image via Milano Cortina 2026 Official Website)

Beyond its sporting significance, the stadium featured in one of the most iconic films of the 80s. In ‘For Your Eyes Only,’ starring Roger Moore as James Bond, the stadium was a backdrop for one of the most iconic moments of the movie.

In that memorable scene, Bond walks through the stadium and its adjoining ice rink complex to meet the antagonist Aristotle Kristatos, played by Julian Glover, a sophisticated yet deceptive figure who attempts to manipulate Bond into targeting his rival, Milos Columbo. In addition to the stadium, the film also featured some of the iconic locations in Cortina D’Ampezzo including the famous Grand Hotel Miramonti.

Another interesting anecdote from the shoot was that the producers paid for trucks to haul snow from nearby Dolomite mountains and dump it in the city’s streets, since it was not snowing there at the time.

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