Imagine an Olympics co-hosted by Montreal and Toronto.
That, to a degree, will be the feeling for this year's Winter Olympics in Italy.
Milano and Cortina are the two main host cities, located more than 400 kilometres apart. But those two centres are only part of a much larger footprint. It will be the most spread-out Olympics in history with six clusters (and six athletes villages) covering an area of around 22,000 square kilometres.
Because of the unique setup, there will be a parade of athletes in four locations in Friday's opening ceremony as well as two Olympic cauldrons.
"Is it easy to do? Certainly not," International Olympic Committee executive director Christophe Dubi said in a press conference last weekend. "... (But) all of them can walk, all of them can participate in the ceremony."
The magic of technology, of course, should make the viewing experience seamless for those at home. Whether the in-person Olympic spirit takes a hit remains to be seen.
"If you're an alpine skier, man or woman, respectively, do you choose any other venue than Bormio or Cortina," Dubi said. "Yes, it's far away, but are these the most iconic locations? Without doubt."
With the opening ceremony on tap Friday, here are some things to watch at the Feb. 6-22 Games.
Kicking it off
Milan's San Siro Stadium, home of soccer giants AC Milan and Inter Milan, will be the main site for the opening ceremony.
Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli are two of the headliners performing.
The theme of the ceremony is "Harmony."
NHL returns
No offence to the mish-mash of men's hockey players to compete in the last two Olympics, but the competition becomes far more interesting with NHL players in action.
We got a long-awaited taste of best-on-best action at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year, and it was outstanding.
Canada beat the U.S. in overtime in the 4 Nations final, making the red and white the favourites to win Olympic gold. Canada won the last two Winter Games with NHLers, in 2014 and 2010.
Goaltending, once again, will be the question for Canada. Jordan Binnington, of course, stepped up in a big way at the 4 Nations, but he has struggled with the St. Louis Blues this season. Darcy Kuemper (Los Angeles Kings) and Logan Thompson (Washington Capitals) are the other options.
With it being 12 years since the last time NHLers were in the Olympics, this will mark the Winter Games debut for many of the sport's top players, including Connor McDavid (Canada), Auston Matthews (U.S.), Leon Draisaitl (Germany) and Mikko Rantanen (Finland).
Men's hockey starts on Feb. 11, with Canada's first game coming on Feb. 12 against Czechia. The gold-medal game is Feb. 22, just before the closing ceremony.
What about the arena?
It's been a race to the finish for construction of the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, but Olympic officials are adamant all is fine.
"One thing we've been clear about for a number of days now is that we have a number of areas where you'd be very impressed. You walk into the venue, the seating bowl is dramatic — it's black, ice is ice," Dubi said last week.
"Now, do we have every single space in that venue finished? No. And is it absolutely needed for the Games? No. So no one's experience is going to be tainted by anything that needs to be painted or carpeted after the Games. Let's be very clear. Anything that is public-facing, anything that is (for) media or, starting with the athletes, (is) absolute top."
The arena hasn't been the only construction issue. A cable car to carry fans to the women's alpine ski course will not be ready on time. Fortunately, the sliding centre for bobsled, luge and skeleton appears ready to go after Olympic organizers had Lake Placid, N.Y., which isn't exactly next door to Italy, as a potential backup.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, there was a brief power outage at the curling arena.
Rival watch
Canada and the U.S. are expected to resume their fierce rivalry in women's hockey in the gold-medal game on Feb. 19. The two powerhouses also will square off on Feb. 10.
Canada has won gold at five of the past six Olympics, but the Americans swept a four-game series between the teams this year.
Canada's opener on Thursday was postponed because of a series of norovirus cases affecting the Finnish team.
What time is it?
The host time zone is six hours ahead of Eastern Time in Canada. That means most hockey games, for example, will be on in the mornings or early afternoon in Canada.
Canadian crew
Canada is sending 207 athletes, putting the country over the 200-mark for the fourth Winter Olympics in a row.
Canada has finished in the top five in total medal count at the past seven Winter Games. That should be a realistic goal again this year.
Short-track speedskating, freestyle skiing and snowboarding are projected Canadian strengths.
Moguls star Mikael Kingsbury, short-track speedskater William Dandjinou and snowboard-cross racer Eliot Grondin are three of the Canadians to watch in those events.
Kingsbury and ski-cross racer Marielle Thompson are the Canadian flag-bearers at the opening ceremony.
Who will win Canada's first medal?
Long-track speedskaters Valerie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann could contend in the women's 3,000 metres on Saturday.
Also on Saturday, ski jumper Abigail Strate should have a shot at the podium in the women's normal hill event.
That's scandalous!
It wouldn't be an Olympic without a little drama off the field of play.
The story attracting the most attention recently has been a controversy involving the Canadian and American skeleton teams. American skeleton athlete Katie Uhlaender has argued Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Canadian coach Joe Cecchini manipulated the field at a last-chance qualifying event to prevent her from getting a spot, but so far she hasn't succeeded in climbing into the field.
Ski-jumping suits, sweeping in curling and judging in figure skating have also been in the news in recent months.
Russia situation
Just like in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, there will not be a team representing Russia at Milano Cortina.
However, there will be some participation from Russia and Belarus.
Olympic organizers have approved 13 athletes from Russia and seven from Belarus to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes. The athletes are deemed not to have supported Russia's war efforts.
A 209-athlete Russian team won 32 medals to finish second in the medal count at the last Winter Olympics in 2022, so the current situation opens the door for other countries to make more podium appearances.
The new events
Ski mountaineering (better known as skimo) is the lone new sport in the Olympics. It sees athletes racing up and down mountains. Canada did not qualify for the sport.
New events are women's and men's dual moguls, women's large-hill ski jumping, mixed-team relay in skeleton, team combined alpine skiing and women's doubles luge.
International athletes to watch
• American star figure skater Ilia Malinin is known as the Quad God, but the nickname may be outdated after these Games. He said this week he is contemplating an unprecedented quintuple jump. Malinin, 22, is among the most dominant athletes in the world. The two-time reigning men's world champion has not lost an event since a Grand Prix in November 2023. The Virginia skater also said he is wearing laces from Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin at the Olympics.
• Another big American name is 41-year-old American skier Lindsey Vonn, whose Olympics appeared to be in jeopardy when she crashed in a downhill last month. But despite rupturing her ACL, Vonn said this week she plans to try to compete. Her first scheduled event is the downhill on Sunday. Vonn returned after six years of retirement and knee replacement surgery this season, and already has seven podium showings on the World Cup circuit.
• California-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu opted to start competing for her mother's home country of China in 2019. She was one of the biggest stars of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, winning two gold medals and one silver.
• Italian alpine skier Federica Brignone is one of the biggest stars for the home country. She returned to World Cup competition last month after suffering a major leg injury late last season. Brignone captured the World Cup overall, giant slalom and downhill titles last season.
• Kaillie Humphries, a two-time Olympic champ for Canada, will represent the U.S. in bobsled for the second Olympics in a row. She took gold in the monobob in 2022.
• Japanese figure skater Kaori Sakamoto three-peated as women's world champion from 2022-24 and took silver last year. She won Olympic bronze in 2022.
