In Cortina, a small dinner with (Olympic) torches before the 2026 Games
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Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP) – At the “Passetto”, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, guests taste their canederli in front of the Olympic torches fixed to the wall, the oldest dating back to the 1936 Games, waiting for the flame to return to the famous Italian town in 2026.
London 1948, Melbourne 1956, Munich 1972, Salt Lake 2002, Beijing 2022 and of course… Cortina 1956. At the table, we retrace the history of sport in this restaurant-pizzeria with wood-paneled interiors, which will also be full this weekend for the stage of the men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup.
“The torches are still quite rare, especially the older ones,” the boss explains to AFP, eyes smiling behind red-rimmed glasses, who has become a specialist in this emblematic object of each Olympics, between internet searches and negotiations with second-hand dealers hand around the world.
Giorgio Ghedina, 63, is the uncle of former Italian champion Kristian Ghedina, five Games appearances and 13 World Cup victories until his retirement in 2010.
Of all prices
“For the modern Games there are generally from 7,000 to 10,000 copies, depending on the number of seats and torch bearers (for the path of the flame, ed). piece, a torch entirely in stainless steel: that of Berlin in 1936.
Slender or flared, futuristic or classic, the thirty-one torches on display are all original, assures the owner of this informal “museum” that you can visit while tasting a pizza or canederli, a local specialty made with bread and speck.
“As it often started by chance, twenty years ago. A blacksmith from Cortina, who had been ordered lamps in the shape of the torches of the 1956 Olympic Games, offered me one. And I said to myself, why not continue?”, describes Giorgio Ghedina, who carried the flame himself during the Turin Winter Olympics in 2006.
“I give myself what I can afford. Their value is very relative, it’s not like a jewel where we rely on objective characteristics”, underlines the owner.
Their price is generally a few thousand euros, according to him, but some reach figures whose height rivals the peaks of the Dolomites.
Signed by the medalists
The Torches of Helsinki (1952), of which only twenty-two exist, have sold for between 350,000 and 475,000 euros at auction in recent years.
One of thirty-three copies of Grenoble (1968) sold for 182,000 euros (including costs) in February 2022 in Paris, according to auction house Million.
“I had found it in Albertville, but they wanted it for 80,000 euros, madness, so good…”, sighed Giorgio Ghedina.
At the “Passetto” it is not uncommon to come across former heroes of the Games, who have come to recall their exploits. To those who have won medals, the chief never forgets to ask them to sign the torches.
That evening it was the former Italian alpine skiing champion Deborah Compagnoni who crossed the threshold, three times gold medalist in three different Games (1992, 1994 and 1998). She does not escape the traditional signature on the Nagano torch: “These were my last Games, but also the most beautiful because there I also won a silver medal”, smiles the 52-year-old former skier.
One more signature, alongside Sofia Goggia or Lindsey Vonn, in the collection of the boss, who is now looking forward to seeing the Milano/Cortina 2026 torch: “I would make it in Murano glass, that would be magnificent!”
© 2023 AFP
