VIDEO SHOWS: OFFICIAL OLYMPIC PIN TRADING CENTRE AT MILANO CORTINA GAMES/ COMMENTS FROM PIN COLLECTORS RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: MILAN, ITALY (FEBRUARY 9, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all) 1. OLYMPIC PINS ON SHOW AT TRADING CENTRE 2. VARIOUS OF COLLECTORS BROWSING PINS 3. VANCOUVER 2010 PIN WITH THE DESIGN OF AN ICE SKATE 4. TRADER BROWSING PINS 5. PINS ON SHOW 6. PIN COMMEMORATING CALGARY 1988 JAMAICAN NATIONAL BOBSLEIGH TEAM WHICH INSPIRED THE FILM 'COOL RUNNINGS' 7. PIN COLLECTOR, KIM W, FROM CALGARY AND ANOTHER COLLECTOR BROWSING PINS 8. VARIOUS OF KIM TRADING A VANCOUVER 2010 ICE HOCKEY PIN FOR THE OFFICIAL LOONEY TUNES PIN FROM DAY OF THE 2026 MILANO CORTINA GAMES 9. KIM SHOWING OFF HER CALGARY 1988 PINS WITH CALGARY WHITE HAT DESIGNS 10. CALGARY WHITE HAT PIN 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KIM W FROM CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA, SAYING: "It can be about the money because the older pins can be very expensive - if you go back to 1928 and prior, those ones, to get them. But everything just depends on what you like to collect. It's priceless." 12. VENDORS SELLING MILANO CORTINA 2026 PINS FROM OFFICIAL TRADING CENTRE 13. MILANO CORTINA 2026 PARALYMPIC PIN FOR SALE 14. COLLECTOR BROWSING PINS FOR SALE 15. COLLECTOR INSPECTING PINS ON ANOTHER COLLECTOR'S LANYARD 16. COLLECTORS EXCHANGING PINS 17. PINS ON SHOW 18. KEVIN STOWERS FROM ATLANTA AND MOLLY SCHMIDT FROM MILWAUKEE SHARING SOME LAUGHS WITH ANOTHER COLLECTOR 19. COLLECTOR ATTACHING PIN TO LANYARD 20. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KEVIN STOWERS FROM ATLANTA, GEORGIA, UNITED STATES, SAYING: "You meet people through the pins that you would never meet any other time. If I'm wearing a scarf full of pins and a crazy hat, people are going to feel, 'hey, that guy's approachable. I can walk up to him and talk to him.' Well, you know, we go through life and, you know, we might smile or nod our head but when I'm dressed like a village idiot, people stop and want to talk." 21. PINS ON SHOW 22. YORICK SPIEKER FROM DUESSELDORF ATTACHING PIN 23. PINS ON SPIEKER'S SCARF AND LAMINATED CARD READING: "Pins for trade, not for sale! Pin Man" 24. (SOUNDBITE) (English) YORICK SPIEKER, FROM DUESSELDORF, GERMANY, SAYING: "So the smaller the country is, the less participants or athletes there are, the higher the value of those things are because it's so difficult to find. So just to give an example: there's a pin of Madagascar I don't have yet. There's a pin of Saudi Arabia I don't have yet. There's a skier from United Arab Emirates - one athlete - I don't have that pin yet. So these are really the pins you want to look for because you want to have one pin of each nation participating." 25. PIN INSPIRED BY THE BULL MOSAIC FROM THE GALLERIA VITTORIO EMANUELE II IN MILAN 26. SCHMIDT ARRANGING PINS 27. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOLLY SCHMIDT FROM MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES, SAYING: "Well, we actually got to meet the U.S. figure skating team outside of the (Milan) Duomo. We just bumped into them. But I started an Instagram page for my pins here at the Olympics, and now those athletes follow it and it's really cool to see them. I feel like we kind of have a connection now with them that I probably wouldn't have been able to interact with the athletes otherwise. It would have been just meeting them on the streets and then like 'goodbye'. But now with social media, I can kind of continue a friendship." 28. MASSIMILIANO CIGANA FROM PORDENONE, ITALY, SHOWING A VIDEO OF HIM CARRYING THE OLYMPIC TORCH TO SPIEKER 29. VIDEO OF CIGANA RUNNING WITH TORCH IN BELLUNO, VENETO, ON HIS PHONE 30. CIGANA POSING WITH MODEL HE MADE OF AN OLYMPIC TORCH 31. PHONE SHOWING BLUEPRINT OF CIGANA'S MODEL WHICH WAS 3D PRINTED 32. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) MASSIMILIANO CIGANA FROM PORDENONE, FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA, ITALY, SAYING "This is a souvenir I made for myself as another memento of the unforgettable experience I had that day when I carried the magic of the Olympic torch which brings everyone together, which brings sportspeople from around the world together. That's the magic of sport at the end of the day." 33. CIGANA SHOWING OFF LED LIGHT DESIGN IN HIS MODEL TORCH STORY: As Olympic mania sweeps Italy, pin collectors gathered in Milan on Monday (February 9) to trade souvenirs and stories from Games gone by. Kevin Stowers from Atlanta first began trading pins when his hometown played host to the Summer Olympics in 1992. It was at those Games where he met Jim Schmidt from Milwaukee with whom he developed a lifelong friendship through their shared passion for Olympic pin collecting. "You meet people trading pins that you would never meet any other time" Stowers told Reuters. Stood in a scarf adorned with pins from various Games, National Olympic Committees and Olympic disciplines, as well as media companies and sponsors, Stowers recalled some of the highlights of the six Olympic Games he attended with Schmidt. The standout came almost two decades ago in Beijing when they witnessed Usain Bolt become the first sprinter to run the 100m in under 9.7 seconds on his way to Olympic gold. Schmidt's 26-year-old daughter Molly missed out on the opportunity to travel to a Games with her father when he sadly passed away before Rio 2016. But the recent pharmaceutical science graduate has continued her dad's legacy - and pin collection - since accompanying Stowers to her first Games 18 months ago in Paris. At Milano Cortina, Molly met members of the U.S. figure skating team outside Milan's Duomo who followed her on social media to keep up with her pin trading exploits. "I feel like we have a connection now when I probably wouldn't have been able to interact with the athletes otherwise," said Molly of the American figure skaters who have since won gold in Sunday's team event. As for Molly's must-have for the Milano-Cortina Games: a custom pin from husband-and-wife figure skating duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates featuring their dog Stella. Duesseldorf's Yorick Spieker, meanwhile, is on a quest to collect a pin from all 92 countries officially competing at this year's Games "The less participants or athletes there are from a country, the higher the value of those pins because they're so difficult to find," explained Spieker. "To give an example: there's one athlete from from the United Arab Emirates. A skier." "These are the pins you are really looking for because you want to have one from each nation participating," he added. Kim from Calgary participated in the 1988 opening ceremony as a dancer. She spoke fondly of memorable moments from those games including the inspiring underdog stories of Eddie the Eagle and the Jamaican bobsleigh team on which the hit film 'Cool Runnings' was based. "It can be about the money because the older pins can be very expensive," she said, acknowledging how the scarcity of some sought after pins has seen them fetch upwards of $1000 dollars in online auctions. But Kim insists you can't put a price on sporting memories which were made to be shared. (Production: Noemie Olive, Conal Quinn) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
