Since February 6 and until Sunday 22, the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games are in full swing in Italy. The competitions come one after the other, the medals come one after the other and the spectators are amazed. However, if we look at the stands carefully, something stands out: there is no Breton flag! And it’s rare enough to underline it.
Usually, whatever the competition (regional, national or international), there is always (really always) a Breton flag flying somewhere, in a corner of the stadiums. At the end of the standard, we find a band of die-hard Bretons, ready to travel thousands of kilometers and brave any weather to proudly brandish the Gwenn ha du, the famous Breton black and white banner. Everywhere, all the time… except in the Olympic venues, including those of Milan-Cortina, where they are simply prohibited. Perak? (“Why?” in Breton)
The IOC, international anti-fun committee
If you are from Brittany and you want to complain, we will let you redirect yourself to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is he – and his strict regulations – who are at the origin of this ban. And it doesn’t just concern the Bretons.
For the IOC, at each edition of the Olympic Games, summer and winter, only the flags of the officially participating countries and territories are allowed in the stands. In the IOC regulations it is also stated that“it is prohibited to bring into all official venues flags (current and historical) of countries whose athletes are allowed to participate exclusively as neutral individual athletes, as well as any other object likely to be associated with these countries”.
The IOC wants to preserve a framework centered on the participating nations and avoid any expression deemed political or identity-based in the stands.
What does that mean? Quite simply that regional flags, whether Breton, Basque, Corsican or even Catalan, are strictly prohibited. Just like the Russian and Belarusian flags, when athletes compete under a neutral banner, as is still the case for these 2026 Winter Olympics.
Gwenn ha du is therefore not the only one to undergo this strict application of Olympic regulations. To put it simply: only national banners recognized by the IOC, such as that of France, are authorized. But be careful, their shaft (the handle) must not be rigid and their size must not exceed one meter by two. Not fun.
100% sport, 0% politics (and 100% disappointed Bretons)
The situation is not new. During the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the same regulations already applied. Not enough to intimidate some brave Bretons, who had then tried several times to hang a flag here and there. A victory that lasted no more than a few minutes each time, before security made them withdraw.
But why is the IOC so attached to this ban? The answer is simple: the committee wants to preserve a framework centered on the participating nations and avoid any expression deemed political or identity-related in the stands. To put it simply, the IOC does not want any political messages in the stands, in order to concentrate solely on the sport.
However, in the case of Gwenn ha du, it is above all a symbol of cultural and identity attachment which is prohibited here. For the record, the latter is made up of horizontal bands which represent the nine historic countries of Brittany (Cornouaille, Léon, Trégor, Vannetais, Pays de Dol, Pays de Saint-Brieuc, Pays de Saint-Malo, Pays Nantais and Pays Rennais), in black and white colors, symbolizing the two languages of the region (Breton and Gallo), as well as several ermine tails. But in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and on the other sites of the 2026 Winter Games, the Bretons will have to be content with this good old tricolor flag if they want to support their athletes from their region.
Nordic combined, problematic ban
Another ban, specific to the Winter Games, caused a stir. This time, no Brittany or regional flag: it was the absence of women in Nordic combined (a sport which combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing) which hit the headlines.
The discipline is in fact the last sport exclusively reserved for men at the Winter Olympic Games. In 2026, this is starting to seriously take its toll, especially since this sport has been on the Olympic program since the very first edition of the Winter Olympics, in 1924 in Chamonix (Haute-Savoie), and there has been a Women’s World Cup since the 2020-2021 season. Hello IOC?
For the International Olympic Committee, the refusal is calculated: it fears that the discipline itself will not last long in the next editions of the Winter Olympics and does not see the point of opening a new women’s category in Nordic combined, even though this sport could be removed from the Olympic program. The lack of competition between nations and the low interest of the public (the Nordic combined often recording the lowest audiences of the Winter Olympics) weaken, with each edition, its Olympic future. Kenavo! (“Goodbye” in Breton)
