Athens, 4 December 2025 – The Olympic flame for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics was officially handed over to the Italian delegation today in a moving ceremony at the historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
Paul of Greece, accompanied by his wife Marie-Chantal Miller and his mother, former Queen Anne-Marie, attended the event, quietly linking his family’s deep Olympic history to the modern Games.
The flame, lit in Ancient Olympia on 26 November 2025, completed its Greek leg with the traditional handover organized by the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Despite rainy weather forcing a scaled-back program, the atmosphere inside the marble stadium remained solemn and symbolic.
A Personal Family Connection to the Olympics Paul’s late father, King Constantine II, won gold in sailing (Dragon class) at the 1960 Rome Olympics and later served for over 40 years as an International Olympic Committee member. Today’s presence of his son at the same stadium that hosted the first modern Games in 1896 underlined an unbroken thread of Greek royal involvement in Olympism.
During the ceremony, Paul was seen in relaxed conversation with Hellenic Olympic Committee President Isidoros Kouvelos and IOC member Spyros Capralos, reflecting his continued quiet engagement with Greek sport.
The flame will now travel across Italy before the Opening Ceremony in Milan on 6 February 2026.
For Greece, the Panathenaic Stadium – known to Greeks as Kallimarmaro – once again proved the perfect stage where past and present Olympic stories converge.
Read More Remembering King Constantine II
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