Milan~Cortina 2026 Olympics ~ Truce Foundation Highlights

our official initial press release is linked here.

• “It’s a Truceful Movement,” our relevant theme for these Winter Games and times, and our call to the people of the world to live in daily trucefulness.

• Presenting Trucefulness Awards. February 11, 2026, in Milan. One, a “President’s” award To Isabelle Picco, Ambassador and Permanent Representative from Monaco to the U.N.; with Prince Albert II of Monaco participating. For her role as a “Truce-Bearer,” her global leadership in sport diplomacy, forging The Olympic Truce at the UN.

• And, a second award, an “Open Fields” award, to Italy and its people for peaceably hosting and ensuring the safety of all across these Winter Games. The senior Italian governmental recipient-on-behalf to be announced.

• Both awards to include honoring truce~bearer poems, composed & voiced by our Poet Laureate, Colin Goedecke.

• Debut of the Truce Portal, a source and resource of truce-related information and insight for journalists, athletes, governments, communities and the general public. Which also includes a Truce Compliance Index.

• Debut of The Truce Compliance Index. The first of its kind. Multifaceted truce compliance monitoring, worldwide, from ceasefires to youth impact.

• A Lead Cultural Offering, It’s a Truceful Movement, in video, written & voiced form. By Foundation poet laureate Colin Goedecke. As a further resonant call to trucefulness, to individuals, communities and countries everywhere. Video being co-created with Henry Hargreaves. To be presented at the February 11, 2011 award ceremony, then released publicly and widely shared, and freely shareable online.

• Participation in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Cultural Olympiad.

• Generous Hosts & Sponsors, Collaborators & Contributors. Those who’ve helped us realize and enhance our event. From The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) to Multilateral Accountability Associates (MAA) and ACLED to the global nonprofit movement Save the Dream. And Apierion, which has also made a short truce-and-Foundation related video for the occasion, link here.

• A UN General Assembly Resolution of 30 January 2026 re-affirming the Olympic Truce for the 2026 Games.

• Articles by Italy’s Formiche magazine, February 2026, “Games Put to the Test of a Truce,” by Hugh Dugan (in English translation), and from the Washington Post, “Olympic Ceasefire Calls Lay Bare the Scale of Global Conflict."

• Our initial official press release, also linked again here.

Trucefulness is Harmony

Trucefulness is the guiding spirit of the ancient Olympic truce. Where we seek to be in harmony with each other, and with everyone and everything in our world, Nature not least. And not just casually, or fleetingly, but continuously, actively, genuinely. An essential idea, at play in Italy’s 2026 Winter Games, and reflected in the Opening Ceremonies.

The Olympic Truce reminds us that if ancient warriors could pause their battles for athletic competition, surely we can find moments in our daily lives to set aside our grievances, and see, and engage, the humanity in others. It's about recognizing that what unites us, our common shared humanity, is far more important than what divides us. As Mahatma Ghandi once said, An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

The modern Olympics are not solely about sport, but about educating the world’s youth through sport and through culture. The Olympic rings themselves are meant to express and unite ideals of excellence, respect and fellowship.

The Games bring youth together to compete and cooperate. And to enter a place and state of shared participation, that transcends the given events, national identities and ideologies.

Through culture and sport, Olympic education is hands-on. With ideals and symbols that point to our greater individual and collective humanity. With Games that are exemplars and celebrations of a global solidarity.

To infuse and magnify the truce-centric nature of these 2026 Olympics, we’re making another one-of-a-kind cultural offering. As we did at the 2024 Paris Games. Created by our poet laureate Colin Goedecke. A call to all of us to be truceful. A virtue reflected in our Foundation's poem-anthem and our call-to-the-people-of-the-world poem “Being Truceful,” in video, audio and written word on our home page.

These specially and newly, originally-composed, voiced, written and visualized poetics we’re contributing, will be seeable, readable and hearable on our site, and on streaming and other platforms elsewhere. Links forthcoming. We invite you to find quiet time to take them in, and share them on as they’re available.

We’re presenting a Truce~Bearer award to Isabelle Picco, UN Ambassador from Monaco, for her peace-focused work and als0 in recognition of Monaco’s leadership in sport diplomacy. And an award to the people and Republic of Italy, the senior government recipient-on-behalf to be announced. The invitation-only ceremony will take place in a famously historic setting in the heart of Milan, on February 11, 2026. You can find our former awardees here.

We encourage you to live in daily trucefulness ~

with yourself, others and the natural world.

Our Generous Milan~Cortina Hosts, Sponsors, Collaborators & Contributors

Bringing our program and messages of truce forth in Italy during the Games is being made possible by many. By The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU). By the multiversed Poet, Illuminator & Poetorialist Colin Goedecke, who also serves as our poet laureate. He’s the founder & guide of The Poetisphere, creator & voice of The Daily Spark, a Substack series, and composer, on commission, of inspiring, heirloom poems for organizations and events, like the Olympics, and for individuals and notable occasions. By Multilateral Accountability Associates (MAA), producing & maintaining our Truce Portal and Truce Compliance Index, also ACLED, (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data), providing data for the Truce Index, Apierion, and Save the Dream, a global nonprofit movement. Last and not least, the Società del Giardino, The Society of the Garden, in Milan, for hosting our awards ceremony. We thank them each and all.

The Truce Foundation is also honored to be a part of…