Gen26: the Olympic dream growing among schoolchildren

There is an Olympics being prepared not only with snowy slopes, arenas and villages for athletes, but also inside classrooms, among colorful backpacks, blackboards and the voices of curious students. This is where it comes to life Gen26, the educational program that accompanies new generations to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina 2026.

A project designed to train not only athletes of the future, but more importantly, knowledgeable citizens ready to pick up the baton of Olympic values: friendship, respect, inclusion and sustainability.

The spark that is born among the boys

Gen26 has arrived in schools like a flame that is ignited and passed from one hand to the next. More than 100,000 students throughout Italy have already taken part in meetings, workshops and theme days that have transformed the school routine into an opportunity for discovery.

It's not just about sports: in the classes, topics such as environmental protection, the power of diversity, the value of volunteering, and the beauty of teamwork are discussed.

Students hear stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, meet witnesses who have been able to transform sacrifice and passion into unforgettable successes, and then get involved themselves with activities that combine movement and reflection.

When sport enters schools

Each stage of the Gen26 program is a small event. In Bari, for example, the arrival of the skater Valentina Marchei and Olympic taekwondo champion Charles Molfetta turned a simple morning into a moment of collective celebration. The students not only listened, but asked questions, laughed, got excited: in that dialogue they saw that sports is not a distant world, but a path that can belong to them.

In Valtellina, however, the project has taken on the contours of a true community: 6,000 children involved, meetings with experts in sustainability, sports marketing and volunteerism. Here Gen26 has become a laboratory of ideas, where sports meets the local area, quality food, and local culture.

Gen26 outside the classroom: squares, events and community

But Gen26 doesn't just live between desks and hallways. It also lit up during big popular events, such as the Expo for Sports in Milan or the Run for Inclusion, turning parks and squares into open-air gyms.

And again: the Winter Games Week, with hundreds of schools involved, brought workshops, games and cultural meetings throughout Italy. A true shared countdown to the 2026 Games.

Then, in Lombardy and Veneto, the Milan Cortina 2026 Trophies brought together more than 40,000 students, turning Milan's Brera Arena into a festival of sports and youth.

A generation that bears the name of the Games

The name Gen26 is not accidental: it calls to mind a generation that will be adults precisely in 2026, when the Games will light up Milan, Cortina and all the Italian Alps. Boys and girls who sit in the pews today but will soon become volunteers, spectators, professionals and citizens of the Olympic world.

Some dream of competing, some dream of reporting on the Olympics as a journalist, some dream of experiencing them as a volunteer of the Team26. However, they all share a common path: growing up with a set of values that go far beyond sports.

A legacy that remains

The most extraordinary aspect of Gen26 is that its impact will not end with the February 6, 2026, when the Olympic brazier is lit at the San Siro Stadium. Instead, it will remain in the children, the teachers, and the communities that took part in the journey.

Each workshop, each testimony, each dedicated day is a seed planted: a seed of respect, of inclusion, of love for sport and the environment. A legacy that Milan-Cortina will leave to the country far more lasting than a sports record.

Gen26 Is a story about the future. It is a tale of an Italy that does not just host the Games, but lives them and passes them on to new generations. It is a demonstration that sport is not just competition, but education, growth and community.

When the Olympic flashlight shines among the mountains in 2026, it will not only be the light of the Games that will illuminate the country: it will be the light of thousands of boys and girls who will have learned to believe in Olympic values, and to carry them with them into their daily lives.