MILAN — The Olympic spirit might not dominate Milan’s sidewalks the way it does in the Alps and Dolomites, but once fans make the train ride out to the ice park, they bring it all with them.
Milan is home to just four events: ice hockey, short track speed skating, speed skating and figure skating. The ice park is on the far side of the city, with Olympic festivities scattered across small pockets of the tourist centers.
But at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, sequined maple leaves, red-white-and-blue wigs, glittered cowboy hats and carefully curated pin collections bring the Olympic energy and color that the city lacks.
At the Fiera Rho, the convention center home to the Olympic ice park, the walk from the train to ticket scanners stretches almost a mile. Volunteers blast Italian pop music through their megaphones, dancing in the corridors as they direct spectators toward the entrances, almost like a pep rally to keep people walking through the otherwise deserted convention center.
Daniel Presburger walked the spectator zone around the speed skating stadium on Tuesday with a chest full of pins and extras tucked into his pockets for kids who wandered past him.
“I am now 16 Games and 42 years in,” said Presburger, a recently retired school teacher from Los Angeles. “I was in Park City in 2002 for at least a day or two, mostly for the pin trading shows, but I’m looking forward to ’34. You’ll see me there.”
The first pin Presburger traded was in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, when he bought five for $20 outside Dodger Stadium.
“Now look at me,” he said, gesturing to the hundreds of pins dotting his pin apron and the pockets of his jeans.
He retired on a Friday and left for Italy the following Tuesday. As president of the Southern California Pin Collectors, he’s already thinking about shows leading up to Utah’s 2034 Games.
People in Milan have had a harder time finding the Olympic spirit, and as a result, pin trading has become more prominent here than in any other cluster. In Milan, some collectors are extremely picky, hunting only for officially branded Olympic pieces with the coveted five-ring cutouts.
Others are happy to swap anything that might remind them of a conversation they had with a stranger that day, and all of them, probably, sport one of the many pins that once belonged to Presburger from Olympic Games spanning the past four decades.
Unlike the Olympic crowds swarming the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo or Livigno, larger suitcases, a gentler climate and the indoor sporting venues allowed for fan costumes significantly more elaborate and ridiculous in Milan.
Cameron and Aubry Peterson came from Dallas, Texas, for their first Games with three costumes each, rotating them into different combinations for every event they attend.
The first night, they dressed as Captain America and Captain Marvel. On Tuesday, the couple stuck out from the stands as Aubry’s Lady Liberty headdress and torch lit up their row beside Cameron in a Mr. America top hat and American flag onesie.
“We’re honestly just excited to be here and watching Team USA,” Aubry said. “This is a bucket list item for us. So we left the kids at home and we’re here to enjoy it and take it all in ourselves.”
They planned to attend four hockey games but added speed skating because they knew they had to take the opportunity to see something they would never otherwise experience, said Cameron.
“And the speed skating crowds have almost outdone the hockey fans. Being here is really bringing home that feeling of being at the Olympics,” he said.
In addition to Lady Liberty and Mr. America, the couple have also attended events as American cowboys, sometimes adding in a blue wig or a red tutu where Aubry can.
“There is just no reason to hold back. People have really loved it and so have we, so we just decided to have fun with it and go big,” said Aubry.
Walking through central Milan can feel like any other weekday, they said. But near the arena, the crowds clustered into a rainbow of national colors and echoed chants that really bring the Olympics home.
“Once we get near one of the arenas, you can finally feel it and see that the Olympics are here,” Cameron said. “It’s really cool to see everyone from all over. We might not all speak the same language, but everyone gets it, whether it’s the sports or taking pictures together. Everyone gets each other. We have had a great experience.”
The Petersons said some of their favorite moments from the Games have been the people they have met from across the world who stopped them for a photo, drawn by their elaborate costumes.
But none could match the attention drawn by Hamish Black and Mike Bell attending their first Olympics dressed as Canadian Mounties, the royal Canadian police force — traditional only in name and otherwise livened with knee high socks and full glitter, accessorized with a fake “Tim Birkin” bag and a bedazzled Tim Hortons, the former hockey player and popular Canadian coffee chain’s to-go cup.
From the moment they entered the stadium, broadcast cameras, photographers and media swarmed the couple, beginning what would become a day’s worth of photos with the crowd as everyone from Canadians to Italian and Dutch fans queued in the stands for photos with Canada’s unofficial mascots.
“Well, the line was not something we expected,” Black said, laughing. “But we did say we had to elevate our costume game for the Olympics, and I would say we achieved that.”
Black is a former speed skater for Team Canada. He said that while he never quite made it to this high of a level, he is close with some of the women competing at the Games. Black and Bell typically go all out in support when the World Cup comes to Calgary, Canada, but decided to take it a step further for their first Games.
Casey Quinn and her father, Robert Quinn, caught the Olympic bug at the 2024 Games in Paris, where the two celebrated her 30th birthday and his 60th.
“It was the most fun we’ve ever had in our entire lives,” Casey said. “From there, we decided we are going to every Olympics after.”
They’re already planning to go the French Alps in 2030, Los Angeles in 2028 and Park City in 2034.
“Being here, being a part of the Olympic community, is so incredible,” Robert said. “No matter what else is going on in the world, the Olympic spirit is alive and well.”
Jin Hong and friends Evan and Jill Munro stood out in furry American wigs.
Visiting from Miami, Hong said she is grateful the Milan Games have been significantly less cold than the Olympics she attended in Korea. She said being in Milan felt like an even larger international community than she could have imagined.
“I’ve never been around so many different people from around the world,” said Hong.
Evan Munro has attended four Winter Games now, having begun the tradition at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where he met “Team Mom and Dad,” the parents of Team USA’s speed skating team, falling into a now 12-year friendship with the family of speed skater Emery Lehman, who won the silver medal alongside Casey Dawson and Ethan Cepuran in Tuesday’s team pursuit.
“So I’ve come back every year after that. Being a part of that community has made it just so fun. I think you learn so much about the sport and individually what it takes to be at the top of the field,” Munro said. “Seeing it through their eyes is the key. It really makes it that much more special.”
For families like the Dawsons, parents of Park City’s Olympic medalist Casey Dawson, the arena is filled with community, whether in the form of anonymous cheering supporters or lifelong friends. They brought matching shirts for their group of supporters.
Mike Dawson ran across the stadium to throw one to Catherine Raney Norman, a four-time speed skating Olympian now serving as vice president of development and athlete relations for Utah 2034, and parents of other Team USA Olympians. Along the way, he spotted Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady but ran out of shirts before he could make it to his section.
“Tom owes me for wearing a Patriots jersey to Casey’s 5K on Super Bowl Sunday,” Dawson joked.