Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics

The 25th Olympic Winter Games will be held in northern Italy from 6 to 22 February 2026. The hosting rights were awarded at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 24 June 2019, when a combined bid from Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo was voted in favour by a vote of 47-34 over a Swedish bid from Stockholm-Åre. The Games will be held under the name Milano Cortina 2026, and will be the first Olympic Games to be held under the leadership of new IOC President Kirsty Coventry.

The upcoming Games in Milano Cortina will be the third time that the Olympic Winter Games have been held in Italy. Cortina d’Ampezzo hosted the 7th Winter Games in 1956 and Turin the 20th Winter Games in 2006. Italy has also hosted the Summer Olympics once, with the 17th Summer Games being held in Rome in 1960 [1].

Host cities and arenas

The Winter Games in northern Italy are the first Olympic Games to be officially hosted by two cities. The competitions will be held at a number of iconic winter sports arenas in the mountainous areas of northeastern Italy. The opening ceremony will be held at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, which seats 75.000 spectators, and the closing ceremony at the Verona Stadium.

Below is an overview of the distribution of sports at the various winter sports resorts [2]:

Milan

• Ice Hockey
• Speed ​​Skating
• Figure Skating
• Short Track

Cortina d’Ampezzo

• Alpine Skiing
• Curling
• Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton

Sports in Bormio

• Alpine Skiing
• Ski Mountaineering

Sports in Livigno

• Snowboard
• Freestyle Skiing

Sports in Predazzo

• Ski Jumping
• Nordic Combined

Sports in Tesero

• Cross-Country Skiing
• Nordic Combined

Sports in Anterselva / Antholz

• Biathlon

Sports and Disciplines

The program in Milano Cortina includes 16 sports with a total of 116 medal disciplines. This is one sport and seven disciplines more than at the previous Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. Here is an overview of the most significant changes compared to 2022 [3]:

• Ski Mountaineering is a new sport that will make its Olympic debut in Milano Cortina. There will be competition in three disciplines, Sprint for women and men and Relay mixed.
• In Alpine Skiing, two new disciplines are being introduced, Team combined for women and men. At the same time, the two individual competitions in combination for women and men and the Team Relay discipline will be eliminated from the previous programme.
• Cross Country has been adjusted so that there is gender balance in the disciplines for women and men. This results in changes in four disciplines, for example, for the first time at the Winter Games, women will run 50 km instead of 30 km.
• In Freestyle Skiing, two new disciplines are being introduced, Dual moguls for women and men.
• In Luge, a discipline in Doubles for women has been added, so that there is now gender balance in the Luge competitions.
• For the first time at the Olympic Winter Games, women will be allowed to ski jump from the large hill.
• In Skeleton, the two individual disciplines are now supplemented by a Team mixed discipline.

Nations and athletes

The competitions for qualification for the various sports have not yet been completed, so it is still uncertain how many nations and athletes will participate in the Games in Milan Cortina. However, it is expected that around 90 nations and 3000 athletes will participate. Among others, it is expected that the United Arab Emirates will participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time.

Russia and Belarus remain excluded from participation in the Olympic Games as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At the most recent Olympic Games, the Summer Games in Paris 2024, athletes from the two countries that had not expressed support for the invasion were allowed to participate as neutral athletes without any connection to the two excluded countries. This was done under a special set of rules and under the name Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN). It has not yet been decided which conditions will apply in Milan Cortina.

Information about the Winter Olympic Games

Until 1924, winter sports, ice hockey and figure skating, had been on the Olympic program for the Summer Games several times. The IOC had also discussed the possibility of holding independent Winter Games several times. In connection with the planning of the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1916, the German organizers also had plans for separate skiing games. However, this never became a reality, as the 1916 Berlin Olympics were cancelled due to World War I [4].

In 1921, the IOC again discussed a proposal to hold the Winter Games. The Nordic countries opposed such a proposal, as they were concerned that independent Winter Games would distract from their own Nordic Games, which had been held every four years since 1901. Therefore, no decision was taken on the matter.

In June 1922, the French Olympic Committee organized a conference with the participation of representatives of skiing, skating and ice hockey. Here, with the support of the IOC, it was decided to arrange an International Winter Sports Week, which was subsequently held in Chamonix, France's famous winter sports resort on the mighty Mont Blanc massif, from January 25 to February 4, 1924.

The event was a success, and the Winter Sports Week was subsequently designated by the IOC in 1925 as the first independent Olympic Winter Games. At the same time, it was decided to organize the Olympic Winter Games every four years, parallel to the Summer Games. The Nordic countries gave up their opposition to the Winter Games, perhaps under the impression that 28 of the 43 medals awarded in Chamonix went to athletes from a Nordic country.

After 1924, the Winter Games were held every four years, interrupted only in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II. In 1992, the 16th Winter Games were held in Albertville, France, and two years later, in 1994, the 17th Games took place in Lillehammer, Norway. This allowed the Winter Games to be placed between the Summer Games instead of in the same year.