President of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Region Renaud Muselier, right, and President of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Region Fabrice Pannekoucke wave the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

VERONA, Italy (AP) — The twin Olympic cauldrons in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo have been extinguished, signaling the end of the 2026 Winter Games. International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry declared the 2026 Games over in remarks to the closing ceremony in ancient Verona Arena, roughly mid-distance between the far-flung mountain, valley and city venues that made these the most spread-out Winter Games ever.

Coventry remarked to local organizers that they “delivered a new kind of winter games and set a new, very high standard for the future.”

A total of 116 medal events have been held in eight Olympic sports across 16 disciplines, including the debut of ski mountaineering this year, over the course of 17 days of competition.

Host Italy won its highest Winter Olympic tally ever with 30 medals — 10 gold, six silver and 14 bronze, crushing the previous record of 20 set at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994.

The United States won the most gold medals they ever have in a Winter Games, having secured their 12th in a dramatic hockey game against Canada on Sunday. Team USA finished the Milan Cortina Olympics second behind Norway in both gold and total medals.

The closing ceremony paid tribute to Italian dance and music — from lyric opera to Italian pop of the 20th century to the DJ beat of Gabry Ponte, who got the 1,500 athletes on their feet and dancing while color confetti exploded on stage. Italian Achille Lauro delivered the last word with the song “Incoscienti Giovani,” or reckless young people, just before athletes who so aptly harnessed their youthful energy for these Games filed out.

Some 12,000 spectators joined the athletes and officials for the closing ceremony, which was much more intimate affair than the opening ceremony starring Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli inside Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, attended by more than 60,000 people.

The Milan Cortina Paralympics’ opening ceremony will also take place in the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the Games will run until March 15.

The next Winter Games will be held in neighboring France, which received the Olympic flag in the official handover earlier in the ceremony. Following the same spread-out model, the 2030 Winter Games will stage events in the Alps and Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, while speedskating will be held either in Italy or the Netherlands.