Mario Gargiulo returned to the Winter Olympics on Sunday evening in Verona, Italy, 70 years after his first trip to the Games at age 20. The 89-year-old took the stage of the Milan-Cortina 2026 closing ceremony as the Games’ oldest volunteer, a starring role that brought him to center stage as thousands of volunteers danced to form the numbers “26.” “To be part of it is incredible,” he told the Associated Press on Sunday morning. “It’s beyond imagination.”
When Mario Gargiulo first traveled to Cortina in 1956, the 20-year-old from Naples made what he later called his first journey north of Rome. Only able to afford a room without heat during the Winter Games, he wore every layer of clothing he owned to sleep. Yet he was captivated by what he saw.
“I was astounded because seeing all these flags, people of different countries,” he said decades later. “Sport is a common tie for everybody. And after awhile, even if you don’t know anything about the sport you’re watching, the competition, you become a fan.”
What Stayed With Him
The experience stayed with him. He married an American woman and honeymooned in Cortina. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving for 27 years and rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring in 1994. During his military career, his language skills took him to Korea, Vietnam, Germany, and Russia.
Seven Decades Later
Seventy years would pass before Gargiulo returned to the Winter Olympics. On Sunday evening, the 89-year-old—now a widower with three children and seven grandchildren—took the stage of the Milan-Cortina 2026 closing ceremony in Verona, Italy, as the Games’ oldest volunteer.
Gargiulo was among the first of 18,000 volunteers to sign up for the Games. His assignment did not take him to Cortina or Milan itself. He wrote to organizers urging them to reconsider. “They said, ‘We have a different plan for you,’” he recalled.
That plan brought him to center stage on Sunday evening. Before the ceremony’s second half, he spoke to the crowd gathering in the ancient Roman Arena, sharing memories of 1956. “Cortina in 1956 was a mountain village,” he said. “Now the Games are spread out in Bormio, Milan and other places. But the spirit has not changed, there is the same sporting enthusiasm.”
Center Stage
Later, as thousands of volunteers danced to form the numbers “26,” Gargiulo knelt at center stage. He removed his teal uniform hat and bowed to the cheering crowd.
“To be part of it is incredible,” he told the Associated Press on Sunday morning. “It’s beyond imagination.”
Asked about the pace of his life at 89, he did not hesitate. “My pace, my tempo, has slowed down a bit,” he said. “But my heartbeat is still the same.”