The Head of State Iliana Yotova will be visiting Italy on the occasion of the opening of the Winter Olympics and at the invitation of the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Kirsty Coventry. This was announced by the press secretariat of the head of state.
At this year's Winter Games, Bulgaria will be represented by twenty athletes in the disciplines of biathlon, alpine snowboarding, alpine skiing, ski jumping, cross-country skiing and figure skating.
Iotova will be a guest at the official reception given on the occasion of the Winter Olympics by the IOC President for heads of state and the leadership of the national Olympic committees today.
On February 6, the Bulgarian president will be welcomed by his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella at the Royal Palace in Milan, where a reception dedicated to the solemn opening of the Winter Olympics will take place. Later, Iliana Yotova will also participate in the ceremony at the “San Siro“ stadium, where the games will be launched and the Olympic flame will be lit.
As part of his visit, the president will visit the Olympic Village in Milan, where he will meet with Bulgarian athletes.
During the visit to Italy, the head of state will pay tribute to the bas-relief of Vasil Levski on “San Paolo“ square in the city of Monza. The sculpture, the work of Boris Borisov and donated by the Municipality of Karlovo in Milan last year, is the first monument to the Bulgarian revolutionary in Italy, the announcement states.
On January 20, the Executive Committee of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) approved the composition of the Bulgarian delegation for the upcoming Winter Games in Milan-Cortina 2026. The country's competitors won 20 quotas for the competitions in Italy from February 6 to 22, and the group includes a total of 51 people, excluding the heads of the delegation in the person of BOC President Vessela Lecheva and Secretary General Danail Dimov.