Milan Cortina 2026: Your Guide to the Winter Olympics

After the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang/South Korea and 2022 in Beijing/China, the major event is returning to Europe – for the third time in history to Italy: The XXV. The Winter Olympics will be held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from February 6th to 22nd, 2026, and the Paralympics from March 6th to 15th. Cortina hosted the Winter Games in 1956 and Turin in 2006.

Medals will be awarded in a total of 16 sports, and more than 3,000 athletes are expected. The only sport that does not have both men’s and women’s competitions is Nordic combined. With the support of the World Ski Association Fis, the women there have so far been fighting in vain for admission despite considerable growth.

The Winter Games will be held across the country like never before. There are five clusters in total. In addition to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, these are the Lombardy region (Bormio and Livigno), Antholz, the Fiemme Valley and Venice.

Opening ceremony with Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli

It officially starts with an opening ceremony at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milan on Friday evening, February 6th. Due to the very decentralized games, there will also be parallel ceremonies in Milan, Cortina, Livigno and Predazzo. Stars Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli will perform in Milan.

The closing ceremony will take place on February 22nd in the ancient arena of Verona, where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics will also take place.

First competitions before the opening

However, there are a number of preliminary and qualifying events scheduled in the two days before the opening ceremony, for example in curling and snowboarding. German participants are also challenged before the Olympic flame is lit: the women’s national ice hockey team will play its first preliminary round game against Sweden on Thursday.

Stars of the 2026 Winter Games: NHL players, Vonn, Malinin

In ice hockey, superstars from the NHL are allowed to appear again for the first time since Sochi 2014 – such as Germany’s exceptional striker Leon Draisaitl. This means that the best possible German Olympic ice hockey team with all NHL top stars is there (more information on this below).

Long-time dominators Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt want to excel in alpine ski racing. 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn will be even more in the spotlight. There were great doubts about her when she made her comeback last winter. This season, however, the superstar of the ski world proved it to everyone with two World Cup victories.

Ilia Malinin is also one of the stars of the games. The 21-year-old figure skater from the USA is nicknamed “Quadruple God” because he can do more quadruple jumps than anyone else in the world.

New Olympic sports and disciplines

A total of 16 sports are on the program for the 2026 Winter Games. Participating for the first time: ski mountaineering in Bormio with the women’s and men’s sprints and a mixed relay.

• Biathlon
• Bobsleigh
• Curling
• Eishockey
• figure skating
• Speed ​​skating
• Nordic Combined (men only)
• Luge
• Short track
• Skeleton
• Ski mountaineering (only in the program for 2026)
• Cross-country skiing
• Ski jumping
• Alpine skiing
• Ski Freestyle
• Snowboard

There are further changes within the sports: In team ski jumping and Nordic combined, teams of four no longer start, but only teams of two, so-called “super teams” – over three heats. New disciplines are:

• Parallel mogul skis (Dual Moguls)
• Women’s doubles in tobogganing
• Team combination in alpine skiing
• Women’s large hill ski jumping
• Mixed-Staffel im Skeleton

Chances of the German Olympic team

At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, the German team won twelve gold, ten silver and five bronze medals, placing second behind Norway in the medal table.

The Germans believe they have very good chances of winning medals, especially in tobogganing and bobsleigh, in Nordic combination and in figure skating with Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin. In ski jumping, this currently only applies to women.

Germany’s top snowboarder Ramona Hofmeister got fit again just in time, returning to the World Cup with a sensational victory on January 10th. The Upper Bavarian won the parallel giant slalom in Scuol, Switzerland, on her comeback after a three and a half month injury break.

In order to be nominated by the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), certain results must be demonstrated in the World Cup: for example, at least one result in the top eight or two in the top 15 in some ski disciplines. Exceptions can also be made in cases of hardship.

The German ice hockey team

“We will have the best German team of all time. But so will the opponents. It’s a good indicator for German ice hockey,” says striker Nico Sturm from the Minnesota Wild, one of nine North American professionals in the squad.

When world-class professionals from the NHL such as Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider and Philipp Grubauer all appear together for the national team for the first time at the Winter Games in Milan, a number of DEB greats from previous years will be missing. In Daniel Fischbuch (Mannheim) and Marcel Noebels (Berlin), for example, two vice world champions from 2023. The top strikers Leo Pförderl (Berlin) and Yasin Ehliz (Munich) – both Olympic silver medalists from 2018 – were also not taken into account. Ex-NHL attacker Tobias Rieder (Munich), a prominent professional, is in the squad for a major tournament for the first time since 2022.

Olympic Schedule: Highlights of the Winter Games

The men’s ski races in Bormio and the women’s ski races in Cortina d’Ampezzo are the first Olympic alpine events on traditional World Cup routes in two decades. There are also likely to be atmospheric sports festivals at the biathlon in the cult town of Antholz as well as at the Nordic events in Val di Fiemme. Indoor ice competitions are taking place in Milan, including the ice hockey tournament with the top stars.

February 7th: First medal day

• 11.30 a.m. – 1.50 p.m.: Alpine skiing, men, descent on the legendary Stelvio slope (Bormio)
• 1:00 p.m. – 2:55 p.m.: Cross-country skiing, women, skiathlon (Tesero)
• 4:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.: Speed ​​skating, women, 3000 meters (Milan)
• 6.45 p.m. – 9.05 p.m.: Ski jumping, women, normal hill (Predazzo)
• 7.30 p.m. – 9 p.m.: Snowboard, men, Big Air (Livigno)

February 21st: Most decisions

• 10.45 – 12.40 Uhr: Ski-Freestyle, Mixed, Team, Aerials (Livigno)
• 11:00 a.m. – 2:10 p.m.: Cross-country skiing, men, 50 kilometers, mass start (Tesero)
• 12.00 – 1.45 p.m.: Ski freestyle, men, ski cross, final (Livigno)
• 1:30 p.m. – 2:35 p.m.: Ski mountaineering, mixed, relay (Bormio)
• 2:15 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.: Biathlon, women, 12.5 kilometers, mass start (Antholz)
• 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Speed ​​skating, women, mass start (Milan)
• 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Speed ​​skating, men, mass start (Milan)
• 7:00 p.m. – 10:20 p.m.: Bobsleigh, women, two-man bobsleigh, 3rd and 4th run (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
• 7:05 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.: Curling, men, final (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
• 7.30 p.m. – 9.15 p.m.: Ski freestyle, women, halfpipe (Livigno)

February 22nd: Last day of games

• 10:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.: Bobsleigh, men, four-man bobsleigh, 3rd and 4th run (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
• 10:00 a.m. – 1:40 p.m.: Cross-country skiing, women, 50 kilometers, mass start (Tesero)
• 11.05 a.m. – 2.30 p.m.: Curling, women, final (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
• 2:10 p.m. – 5:10 p.m.: Ice hockey, men, final (Milan) Closing ceremony in Verona

Here you will find the exact plan for every day and every sport.

Status of the competition venues

All competition venues “will be ready on time,” says the special representative for the Olympic buildings, Fabio Massimo Saldini. In many places, final spurts are necessary: ​​in Livigno, where the snowboarders and ski freestylers compete, the spectacular finish stadium was still a shell a few weeks ago. The main arena for the ice hockey tournament is also not yet ready, so a test scheduled for December 8th to 14th has already been postponed.

The biggest concern for months was the lack of a toboggan and bobsleigh run – there was even talk of moving abroad. But then a new track was built in Cortina d’Ampezzo in less than a year – “a little miracle,” says Olaf Tabor, Chef de Mission for the Germany team. “The fact that the ice track in Cortina is not only there, but has also put a smile on the faces of all those who have been able to try it out for testing purposes, is great.”

At the premiere on the converted Olympic ski jump in Predazzo in September, there were several falls in the women’s competition and three jumpers suffered cruciate ligament tears. The jump is now being improved (the angle of inclination of the inrun table should be reduced).

TV: This is what the Milan Cortina competitions look like

ARD and ZDF have the broadcast rights and will report extensively both on free TV and via streams. The specialty channel Eurosport, which is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, will also show the games on TV and online. For German television viewers, this means that they can watch the Olympic spectacle on the screen from around 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Due to the very long distances between individual competition venues, ARD and ZDF are planning a large part of the production from Germany and will share an Olympic studio in Mainz. Esther Sedlaczek and Stephanie Müller-Spirra lead through the live sections for ARD, and Katrin Müller-Hohenstein and Jochen Breyer for ZDF. Eurosport will have an Olympic studio in Cortina.

Regulations for Russian athletes

Russian athletes are still not allowed to compete under the Russian flag, but can compete as neutral athletes. However, anyone who actively supports the war against Ukraine or is a member of the military is not allowed to take part. Some associations such as the Fis (ski), the IBU (biathlon), the IBSF (bobsleigh), the FIL (tobogganing) continue to exclude the Russians. Teams are not permitted.

Tickets for the 2026 Winter Olympics

According to reports, 800,000 of a total of around 1.2 million tickets have been sold. For some disciplines such as alpine skiing, bobsleigh, tobogganing, ski jumping or curling, individual tickets are no longer available on the official portal, only expensive hospitality offers are available.

Remaining tickets are available at tickets.milanocortina2026.org for events such as figure or speed skating, snowboarding or ski freestyle; However, some of these are very expensive. According to the organizer, more than half of all tickets were available for less than 100 euros each – tickets in such price ranges are now only available for biathlon, cross-country skiing or Nordic combined.

Medal table of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Placement Nation (Gold – Silver – Bronze – Overall)

1. Norway (16 – 8 – 13 – 37)
2. Deutschland (12 – 10 – 5 – 27)
3. USA (9 – 9 – 7 – 25)
4. China (9 – 4 – 2 – 15)
5. Sweden (8 – 5 – 5 – 18)
6. Netherlands (8 – 5 – 4 – 17)
7. Austria (7 – 7 – 4 – 18)
8. Switzerland (7 – 2 – 6 – 15)
9. ROC* (5 – 12 – 15 – 32)
10. France (5 7 2 – 14)

* Russian Olympic Commitee

Melanie Haack is a sports editor and has been an on-site reporter at every Olympic Games since 2012. She will also report from Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. You can find all of her articles here.