After 20 years of competitions in North America, Asia and Russia, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics are returning to Western Europe for the primary time in 20 years.
What’s extra, the Video games are coming again to the identical nation that hosted the final European Winter Olympics in 2006. That point it was Torino and ski resorts within the Milky Manner on the French border; this time it’s Milano–Cortina with venues, reportedly unfold over a wider space than any earlier Olympics, situated additional East, together with within the Dolomites.
Milan Cortina are introduced as 2026 Winter Olympic hosts in June 2019
Greater than 3,500 athletes from 93 international locations shall be competing for 195 medals in 16 Olympic disciplines.
The 2026 Video games are formally the XXV Milano Cortina (twenty fifth) Olympic Winter Video games and would be the first of a second century of the Olympics after Chamonix celebrated the centenary of holding the primary ever winter video games in 2024.
When Are The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Taking Place?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will happen from 6 to 22 February 2026
The 2026 Winter Paralympics will happen from 6 to fifteen March 2026
What’s Occurring The place At The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics?
Cortina d’Ampezzo – generally known as the Queen of the Dolomites – will host the ladies’s downhill ski races. This marks a return of the video games to Cortina, which beforehand hosted the seventh-ever Winter Olympiad 70 years in the past in 1956. It additionally means the village can have hosted two of Italy’s three Winter Olympics.
In addition to snowboarding the resort’s bobsleigh monitor shall be again in motion and curling may even be staged right here. The Olympic monitor had fallen into disrepair and James Bond drove a automobile down it within the 1981 movie For Your Eyes Solely. It’s now being resorted with Lake Placid in New York state reported to be the again up if the restoration will not be accomplished in time.
Bormio – the basic ski city with its legendary Stelvio race programs will stage the Males’s Alpine ski races together with the blue ribbon downhill.
Livigno with its high-altitude slopes will host Freestyle Snowboarding & Snowboarding competitions.
Val di Fiemme would be the host of cross-country Snowboarding competitions.
Anterselva (Antholz) will stage Biathlon races.
Milan will host ice skating competitions.
Olympic Flag
How Many Competitions Will There Be At The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will function 116 medal occasions throughout 16 disciplines. This is a rise of seven occasions in comparison with the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The 2026 Paralympic Winter Video games will function 79 occasions in 6 Winter Paralympic sports activities.
When and The place Will The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies Be Held?
The 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony shall be held on February 6, 2026, on the San Siro Stadium in Milan. The Closing Ceremony will happen on February 22, 2026, on the Enviornment di Verona.
The 2026 Paralympic Winter Video games opening ceremony is scheduled for March sixth in Verona, and the closing ceremony shall be held on March fifteenth in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
What’s on When At The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics?
The complete competitors schedule is right here for the Winter Olympics
The FIS additionally has a list of Alpine snowboarding occasions right here.
An in depth full competitors schedule is right here for the Winter Paralympics.
BIG EVENTS
The primary full day of Olympic competitors, Saturday, February 7, sees one of many greatest occasions for ski racing followers, the Males’s Downhill on Bormio’s notorious Stelvio Slope. The Males’s Snowboard Huge Air shall be staged in Livigno.
The Ladies’s Downhill would be the subsequent day, Sunday, February 8 which may even see the Males’s parallel large slalom remaining and the Ladies’s parallel large slalom remaining later within the day.
Monday 9 February 2026 will embrace the Males’s staff mixed, the Ladies’s freeski slopestyle remaining and the Ladies’s snowboard large air remaining.
On Tuesday tenth February it’s the Ladies’s staff mixed and the Males’s freeski slopestyle remaining.
Wednesday eleventh February is the day of the Males’s super-G and the Ladies’s moguls.
Thursday twelfth brings 4 finals: Ladies’s super-G, Males’s moguls remaining, Males’s snowboard cross finals and the Ladies’s snowboard halfpipe remaining.
Friday, February 13, 2026, sees the Ladies’s Snowboard Cross Finals and Males’s Snowboard Halfpipe Last in Livigno.
Valentine’s Day, Saturday 14 February sees the Males’s large slalom and the Ladies’s twin moguls remaining.
Sunday, February 15, 2026 competitions embrace the Ladies’s large slalom and males’s twin moguls. There’s additionally the thrilling combined staff snowboard cross finals.
Monday 16 February 2026 ought to see Dave Ryding’s remaining Olympic efficiency within the slalom, then within the night the Ladies’s freeski large air remaining.
Tuesday seventeenth brings the Males’s freeski large air remaining and the Ladies’s snowboard slopestyle remaining.
Wednesday, February 18, 2026, will see the ladies’s slalom at Cortina d’Ampezzo and it’s the Males’s snowboard slopestyle remaining.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, will see the ski mountaineering dash occasions will happen in Bormio. In freestyle snowboarding, it’s the Males’s aerials remaining.
Friday 20 February 2026 will see the Ladies’s ski cross finals and the Males’s freeski halfpipe remaining.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, shall be a busy begin to the ultimate weekend of the Video games with 10 gold medals awarded and the ultimate downhill ski and board occasions together with the Combined staff aerials remaining; Males’s ski cross finals and the Ladies’s freeski halfpipe remaining. There’s additionally the Ski mountaineering Combined relay finals.
What are the New Occasions For The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics?
Ski Mountaineering is debuting for 2026 with Males’s Dash, Ladies’s Dash and Combined Relay occasions.
Who Are The Ski Stars To Look Out For At The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics?
The Olympics often generate a mixture of shock winners from outsiders and gold medals for one of the best within the sport.
On the boys’s pace racing facet, the Swiss have been dominant lately with Marco Odermatt (above), till just lately seen because the ‘younger pretender’ now firmly established as one of many biggest downhill racers of all occasions and himself challenged particularly by youthful teammate Franjo Von Allmen.
There are hopes that Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde shall be again competing two years after harm at Wengen’s Lauberhorn led to a protracted spell of restoration. House favorite is Dominik Paris who has received extra occasions on the Stelvio course in World Cup Races than anybody else. In truth his six wins there’s a document for any skier at anyone resort.
Italy may even have excessive hopes for its Ladies’s pace staff who’ve dominated the World Cup tour lately. Their high stars embrace Federica Brignone if she recovers from a present harm in time and Sofia Goggia.
America’s Mikaela Shiffrin (pictured above and high), the best skier of all time is high hope within the slalom, she took her one centesimal World Cup victory, the primary particular person ever to succeed in triple digits for wins, in Italy final winter.
It’s at the moment unclear if her long-time good friend and rival, Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, shall be again on the slopes two years after harm.
Lindsey Vonn
Again from retirement and hoping to win medals shall be America’s residing legend Lindsey Vonn; Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, the one man to have received the World Cup total title eight occasions and racing for The Netherlands, each now of their early 40s, and younger slalom skier, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, representing Brazil.
In freestyle, America’s Chloe Kim is aiming to grow to be the primary snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic golds in halfpipe and China’s Eileen Gu, twice Olympic champion, shall be one to observe within the freestyle snowboarding competitors.
Stars who say the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics shall be their final embrace:
Switzerland’s Lara Intestine-Behrami received Tremendous-G gold on the final Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Britain’s most profitable ever ski-racer Dave Ryding.
Group GB
In addition to Dave, Billy Main and Laurie Taylor have been performing ever-better on the World Cup tour.
Younger snowboarder Mia Brookes received Crystal Globes final season (under) and freestyle skier Kirsty Muir (above) can be a severe contender. Charlotte Bankes is a snowboard cross champion.
Winter Olympics 2026
How To Watch The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics
You’ll be able to nonetheless get tickets for many occasions if you wish to be there in particular person. Tickets are being allotted on a first-come, first-served foundation.
Olympic broadcast rights holders for the UK are the European Broadcast Union and Warner Bros Discovery. Essentially the most complete protection is thru Discovery+ and TNT Sports activities who sadly greater than quadrupled their month-to-month costs to observe snowboarding earlier this 12 months if you happen to subscribe instantly with them. Higher sign-up offers and packages through different suppliers could also be accessible.
In any other case, some occasions shall be stay on the BBC and the European Broadcast Union may additionally stream some competitions free on-line.
