Winter Olympics 2026: all of your questions in regards to the Milano Cortina Games, answered | Winter Olympics 2026

Wait – there’s an Olympics occurring?

Yes. The 2026 Winter Olympics formally begin on Friday and run via 22 February. Given the place they land in a crowded sports activities calendar – with Super Bowl LX on Sunday, the Premier League in full swing and the Australian Open having simply completed – and contemplating it’s been lower than 18 months for the reason that Paris Summer Games ended, it’s simple to see how the Games may need snuck up on some followers.

When do the Winter Olympics begin?

The Games formally start on Friday with the opening ceremony, although a number of competitions will already be beneath manner earlier than then, together with curling, ice hockey, luge, ski leaping, snowboarding and determine skating. As the Winter Olympics have grown – with longer schedules, extra athletes and heavier broadcast calls for – beginning sure occasions early has develop into the one solution to match every part into the official Games window.

Who is internet hosting the Winter Olympics?

Italy is internet hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Games are formally branded Milano Cortina 2026 and are unfold throughout northern Italy, with Milan serving as the first metropolis host and Cortina d’Ampezzo anchoring the mountain occasions.

What are the primary Winter Olympics venues and places?

These Olympics are unfold throughout northern Italy, with occasions clustered by geography and sport. Milan will host a lot of the indoor ice competitions – together with ice hockey, determine skating and velocity skating – and also will stage the opening ceremony. Cortina d’Ampezzo is the centerpiece for alpine occasions, internet hosting alpine snowboarding together with the sliding disciplines. Snowboarding and freestyle snowboarding will happen in Livigno. Biathlon occasions are based mostly in Antholz, whereas ski mountaineering can be contested throughout a number of Alpine mountain programs designed for uphill-and-downhill racing.

This feels unusually unfold out. Is it?

Yes. Organizers have described it as essentially the most geographically dispersed Winter Olympics ever. The upside is surroundings and sustainability; the draw back is difficult journey and logistics for athletes, media and followers.

Why Italy, and why now?

Italy final hosted the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006, whereas Cortina d’Ampezzo hosted in 1956 – the primary Winter Games broadcast to a global viewers. Milano Cortina leans closely into that historical past whereas emphasizing present venues, iconic mountain settings and fewer purpose-built stadiums.

Where can I watch the opening ceremony?

The opening ceremony takes place on 6 February on the San Siro stadium in Milan. In the US, it can air stay on NBC and stream on Peacock, with primetime replays later that night. In Australia you may watch on the Nine Network and Nine Now or stream it on Stan Sport. The BBC and CBC are the host broadcasters within the UK and Canada respectively. And, in fact, the Guardian can be stay running a blog the ceremony – and the whole Games – for the following few weeks.

Will Céline Dion be performing once more?

No, sorry to say. Instead, Mariah Carey is scheduled to headline. She can be joined by pianist Lang Lang, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, tenor Andrea Bocelli, pop star Laura Pausini, and actors Pierfrancesco Favino, Sabrina Impacciatore and Matilda De Angelis. Organizers say the ceremony’s theme, Armonia (Italian for “harmony”), will give attention to Italian tradition, historical past and the nation’s connection to the Olympic motion.

Where can I watch the Winter Olympics 2026 on-line?

Peacock is the primary streaming vacation spot within the US, providing stay feeds, replays and event-specific streams throughout all sports activities.

Will the time distinction be a problem for audiences in North America?

Not actually. Italy is six hours forward of the US east coast, that means many finals will air stay within the morning or early afternoon and replay in prime time. It’s a a lot friendlier schedule than the previous two Winter Games in Asia.

How do I discover the Winter Olympics 2026 schedule?

The timings for each Winter Olympic occasion may be discovered right here.

How is Team USA wanting?

The US has named a 232-athlete roster with an virtually even gender cut up (117 males, 115 girls). Ages vary from 15-year-old freeskier Abby Winterberger to 54-year-old roller Rich Ruohonen.

What are the large US storylines heading in?

Besides Mariah Carey? Lindsey Vonn is trying a exceptional comeback at 41 on her favourite mountain with a totally ruptured ACL, whereas Mikaela Shiffrin chases redemption after a troublesome Beijing Games. Speed skater Jordan Stolz is focusing on a uncommon treble within the 500m, 1000m and 1500m. Ilia Malinin, America’s Quad God, is hotly tipped to win determine skating gold on the energy of his quadruple Axel, the harmful four-and-a-half-revolution bounce no other skater in history has landed in competitors. The US girls’s determine skating workforce dubbed the Blade Angels – led by Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito – is chasing the nation’s first girls’s singles gold since 2002.

Who else ought to informal followers acknowledge?

Chloe Kim, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and one of many Games’ greatest crossover stars, is bidding for a historic third straight halfpipe gold amid harm considerations. Jessie Diggins and Alex Ferreira are additionally multiple-time medalists. Speed skater Erin Jackson, who turned the primary Black lady to win gold in any particular person occasion on the Winter Games by successful the 500m in Beijing, can be defending her title.

How about non-US tales?

The return of NHL gamers for the primary time since 2014 means world superstars comparable to Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and the deep European powers will flip the Olympic event into one thing nearer to a Stanley Cup-level competitors. On house ice, Italy have a number of emotional centerpieces: ice dancers Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri chasing a long-elusive Olympic medal in what is probably going their remaining Games, and short-track legend Arianna Fontana trying a unprecedented double by racing each brief monitor and lengthy monitor.

Elsewhere, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo arrives chasing cross-country immortality with a possible multi-gold sweep. In sliding sports activities, the married skeleton duo of Belgium’s Kim Meylemans and Brazil’s Nicole Silveira are each real looking medal threats for nations which have by no means reached the Olympic podium within the occasion. And in curling, Italy’s defending mixed-doubles champions Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini return to compete in Cortina, at a historic venue, with the strain and alternative of defending gold in entrance of a house crowd.

Which international locations often dominate the Winter Olympics?

A small group of nations persistently dominates the Winter Games. Norway leads traditionally, pushed by cross-country snowboarding, biathlon and Nordic mixed, the place medal alternatives are plentiful. Germany excels throughout biathlon and sliding sports activities like luge and bobsleigh. The United States thrives in alpine snowboarding, snowboarding and freestyle occasions, typically peaking with generational stars. Canada is strongest in ice sports activities, significantly hockey and velocity skating. Austria, Sweden and Switzerland spherical out the standard suspects, reflecting how local weather, tradition and deep growth techniques form Winter Games success.

What sports activities are within the Winter Olympics?

There are 16 Winter Olympic disciplines, together with alpine snowboarding, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country snowboarding, curling, determine skating, freestyle snowboarding, ice hockey, luge, Nordic mixed, brief monitor velocity skating, skeleton, ski leaping, ski mountaineering, snowboarding and velocity skating.

What is ski mountaineering?

Ski mountaineering blends uphill endurance racing with downhill velocity. Athletes climb steep alpine terrain utilizing skins hooked up to their skis, then descend at race tempo. Long widespread in Europe, it enters the Olympic program for the primary time in 2026.

Anything new inside acquainted sports activities?

New medal occasions embody twin moguls in freestyle snowboarding, males’s and ladies’s doubles in luge (changing the open doubles occasion), workforce alpine mixed for women and men, girls’s giant hill ski leaping, plus a combined workforce relay in skeleton.

What occasions ought to informal followers prioritize?

Downhill snowboarding, determine skating, snowboard halfpipe and velocity skating have usually been the blue-riband occasions, no less than from the American perspective. And, later, ice hockey as soon as the knockout rounds start.

Is the Winter Olympics hockey rink actually smaller than the NHL?

Yes – barely. The primary hockey rink in Milan is smaller than a typical NHL floor, which might result in quicker play, tighter spacing and extra bodily video games, significantly within the medal rounds.

Is Russia within the Winter Olympics?

Yes – however solely in restricted kind. Russian athletes are allowed to compete solely as Individual Neutral Athletes.

What does impartial standing really imply?

Neutral athletes can’t compete beneath Russia’s flag, put on nationwide symbols or hear their anthem in the event that they win. Team sports activities comparable to hockey are excluded fully, that means no Alexander Ovechkin or different Russian NHL stars. Athletes should additionally move strict eligibility checks set by the International Olympic Committee, together with exhibiting they haven’t publicly supported the battle in Ukraine or had ties to army or safety companies.

Russian officers have recommended as many as 15 to twenty might qualify, although far fewer have been authorized thus far. The whole is predicted to be decrease than the 15 who competed on the Paris Olympics.

What’s the Olympic village like?

Milano Cortina 2026 won’t have a single Olympic village. Instead, organizers are utilizing a decentralised, six-village mannequin unfold throughout northern Italy, reflecting the large geographic unfold of venues. Athletes can be housed in villages in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno, Bormio, Predazzo and Anterselva, utilizing a mixture of new building, non permanent buildings and present motels.

The largest purpose-built web site is in Milan’s Porta Romana district, the place a brand new village will later be transformed into pupil housing. In Cortina, athletes will keep in a brief village of 377 cellular houses housing about 1,400 individuals, positioned north of city. The models are compact and useful, with shared amenities and publicity to alpine climate, and can be dismantled after the Games. Most groups plan to make use of the villages, although Norway has opted to accommodate its athletes in motels as a substitute.

Do they actually have loads of intercourse in there?

Yes, however it’s extra mundane than the legend suggests. The Olympic Village has a long-running reputation as a hookup hotspot, and there’s some reality to it: hundreds of younger, elite athletes in shut quarters, away from house, driving adrenaline highs. Organizers don’t discourage it – free condoms are a typical fixture – however the actuality is much less Caligula and extra faculty dorm throughout finals week. Many athletes are exhausted, intensely targeted on competitors or sleeping at odd hours, and groups typically impose curfews, room guidelines and monitoring, particularly earlier than occasions.

Milano Cortina’s decentralized setup could additional mood the lore. With athletes cut up throughout six villages – from dense city Milan to distant alpine bases – there’s no single social epicenter. Some opponents keep away from the Village fully till they’re completed competing, others convey companions or household, and most are much more involved with restoration, routines and avoiding sickness than residing out the stereotype. Sex occurs, however for many Olympians it’s a aspect notice, not the purpose.

How a lot do tickets price for the Winter Olympics?

Prices differ broadly. Some early-round occasions begin at beneath €30, whereas high-demand occasions comparable to determine skating finals and hockey medal video games can price a number of hundred euros.

Will ICE brokers be on the Winter Olympics?

Yes, however with limits. A small unit from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement could have a safety help function on the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, US and Italian officers have confirmed. ICE brokers from its investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), will help the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and liaise with Italian authorities on threats comparable to transnational crime.

They won’t perform immigration enforcement or police operations, and all safety stays beneath Italian management. Italian officers careworn the brokers will work from operations rooms – together with a US-run centre on the Milan consulate – relatively than patrol streets or venues.

The affirmation has sparked protests and political backlash in Italy, with critics calling ICE’s presence unacceptable. Several native leaders and opposition events have launched petitions opposing the deployment. Italian ministers have sought to calm tensions, emphasising that ICE’s function is advisory and investigative, not operational.

So, backside line – why ought to I care?

Because Milano Cortina brings collectively star energy, historical past and actual aggressive stakes in a manner the final Winter Games in Beijing – staged largely in empty venues due to Covid – merely couldn’t. This is shaping as much as really feel like a full, correct Olympics once more.