When Mario Gargiulo traveled to the 1956 Cortina Winter Games, his first trip to northern Italy from his hometown of Naples, the 20-year-old never imagined he'd return to the Olympics.

But he has, 70 years later, this time as the so-called "King of the Volunteers". He was among the first of 18,000 volunteers to sign up and, on Sunday in Verona, the 89-year-old took the stage of the Olympics closing ceremony with a starring role: the Games' oldest volunteer.

"To be part of it is incredible," he told reporters on Sunday morning, hours before the ceremony at the ancient Roman Arena that's a short walk from his home. "I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll be wondering what happened to me."

"It's beyond imagination," he said.

For his first appearance on Sunday evening, he joined the warm-up presenters to talk about his time in Cortina in 1956.

"Cortina in 1956 was a mountain village," he told the crowd as it trickled in 30 minutes before the show started. "Now, the Games are spread out in Bormio, Milan and other places, but the spirit has not changed. There is the same sporting enthusiasm."

Later in the ceremony, his special role brought him to center stage as other volunteers — just a fraction of the 18,000 who served in these Games — danced to form the numbers "26". He knelt down and took off his teal uniform hat in tribute, bowing to the cheering crowd.

When Gargiulo turned up for the first meeting of volunteers in Verona, he stood out.

"They were all 20, 25 years old, girls and boys, and they were looking at me sort of strangely," he said, laughing.

But, the widowed father of three and grandfather of seven, who has led a globe-trotting life, embodies the Olympic spirit.

His 1956 train ride to Cortina d'Ampezzo was his first journey north of Rome.

"I went to Cortina out of a sudden desire to do something out of the ordinary. Nobody wanted to come with me so, fascinated by this new thing everybody was talking about, I went alone," he said. Gargiulo relished the chance to watch figure skating and speed skating.

The village known as "Queen of the Dolomites" is today a luxury resort, replete with high-end boutiques, in part due to the spotlight brought by the 1956 Olympics. At the time, it was small, quiet and little known beyond Italy's upper crust.

"I was astounded because seeing all these flags, people of different countries," he said.

"Sports is a common tie for everybody. And after a while, even if you don't know anything about the sport you're watching, or the competition, you become a fan."

He enjoyed Cortina so much that, after he married a woman from the United States, they honeymooned there.

He was disappointed when his 2026 marching orders came through: he wouldn't be traveling from Verona to Cortina, not even to Milan. He wrote a letter to organizers, urging them to reconsider.

"They said, 'we have a different plan for you,'" he recalled. "Then it turned out it was something really exceptional."

This month, he followed Italian Alpine skier Federica Brignone's super-G victory, just 10 months after she broke multiple bones in her left leg, as well as speedskating and freestyle skiing.

But on Sunday night, he was the one in the spotlight.

"My pace, my tempo, has slowed down a bit," he told reporters beforehand. "But my heartbeat is still the same."

Agencies via Xinhua