Winter Olympics organizers are revealing the staggering food consumption numbers from the recent games, showing just how much fuel elite athletes need to compete at the highest level.
According to Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Milano Cortina Games, competitors went through approximately two wheels of Grana Padano cheese daily throughout the competition. Over the entire 16-day event, athletes consumed roughly one ton of the renowned Italian cheese.
The daily food totals were equally impressive: athletes downed about 132 pounds of Grana Padano cheese, 805 pounds of pasta, 10,000 eggs, 8,000 cups of coffee, and 12,000 pizza slices each day. When laid end to end, those pizza slices would stretch nearly 1,800 meters.
Varnier put the scale into perspective with another comparison. “Just to give an idea of the scale, if we stacked all the trays used for each meal every day, they would form a 60-km tower – around 18 times the height of Mount Tofana in Cortina, which is 3,225 metres high,” he explained.
The enormous food requirements reflect the high energy demands of elite athletic competition, Varnier noted. Kitchen staff prepared up to 4,500 meals daily at the Milan Olympic village, with nearly 4,000 more in Cortina and 2,300 in Predazzo. Planning the extensive menus required about twelve months of preparation, according to organizers.
Games chairman Giovanni Malago praised the results of that planning effort. “Apart from the quantity, everyone praised the quality of the food provided,” he stated.
The games proved successful beyond just feeding athletes well. Varnier reported that organizers sold approximately 1.3 million tickets, representing 88% of total available capacity across all competition sessions.
International visitors made up the majority of spectators, with 63% coming from outside Italy while 37% were domestic attendees. German visitors represented the largest foreign contingent at 15%, followed by Americans at 14%, and British and Swiss fans each comprising about 6% of the audience.
Several sports drew particularly strong crowds. “Among the most popular disciplines with spectators was skimo, introduced for the first time at these Olympics in Bormio, which was sold out in both sessions. It was followed by speed skating and short track, both at 95% capacity, figure skating at 93% and ice hockey at 93%,” Varnier reported.
The Olympic cauldrons in Milan and Cortina became major attractions themselves, emerging as some of the most photographed symbols from the 2026 Winter Games. Since February 6, approximately 300,000 people have watched the 88 daily four-minute light and music presentations at Milan’s Arco della Pace.
“It was a great success that energised the city,” Varnier said of the cauldron displays.
The twin cauldrons will present their final performance on Sunday before being temporarily extinguished during closing ceremonies in Verona. After remaining dark for several days, organizers will relight them with updated colors and music for the Paralympic Games running from March 6 through 15.
