Japan has high hopes as Winter Olympics return to Alps

Twenty years after the last Winter Games in western Europe, the Alps are once again ready for a party.

The Milano Cortina Games officially open Friday at San Siro Stadium, home to Italian soccer super clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan, and will wrap up on Feb. 22 at the historic Verona Arena.

The spiritual home of the event — the Alps hosted the first Winter Games in Chamonix, France, in 1924, and have repeatedly played host to the world’s top skiers, skaters and sliders ever since — has not hosted the Games since the 2006 Turin Olympics but will have the floor for the next two editions of the winter sports spectacle.