2026 Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics (Italian: Olimpiadi invernali del 2026), officially the XXV Winter Olympic Games and commonly known as Milano Cortina 2026, were an international multi-sport event that took place from 6 to 22 February 2026 at multiple sites across Lombardy and Northeast Italy, with competition in selected events beginning 4 February 2026. The 2026 Games featured the debut of ski mountaineering as a Winter Olympic event, and they were the first Olympic Games under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidency of Kirsty Coventry.

A joint bid by Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo was awarded the 2026 Winter Olympics at the 134th IOC Session on 24 June 2019, beating another joint bid made by Stockholm and Åre, Sweden. Milano Cortina 2026 is the first Olympic Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities. Milan primarily hosted the ice events, while the remaining events were hosted in clusters around Cortina, Livigno, and Fiemme. These marked the third Winter Olympics, and the fourth Olympics overall, hosted by Italy; Cortina d'Ampezzo previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics.

Norway finished at the top of the medal table for the fourth successive Winter Olympics with 18 gold and 41 medals overall, setting a new record for the largest number of gold and total medals won at a single Winter Olympics. The United States finished second with 12 gold and 33 medals overall, making this the team's most successful Winter Olympics in terms of gold medals. The Netherlands finished third with 10 gold and 20 medals overall, also making this the team's most successful Winter Olympics in terms of gold medals. The host nation Italy finished fourth with 10 gold and 30 medals overall, setting a new record for number of medals won. Brazil won the first medal and first gold medal in their Winter Olympic history; it is also the first tropical, Latin American and South American National Olympic Committee to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. Georgia also won the first medal in their Winter Olympic history. Despite early concerns and controversies relating to logistics, the Games were considered a success by the press and observers upon its conclusion.

Bidding process

Host city selection

Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities on 24 June 2019 at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. The three Italian International Olympic Committee (IOC) members (Franco Carraro, Ivo Ferriani, and Giovanni Malagò) and two Swedish IOC members (Gunilla Lindberg and Stefan Holm) were ineligible to vote as stated in the Olympic Charter.

Development and preparations

Venues

The Games primarily utilized existing venues across Lombardy and Northeast Italy, including those used by the 1956 Winter Olympics previously held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and by the 2013 Winter Universiade hosted by the province of Trentino. Most ice events, aside from curling, were held in the Milan cluster, while sliding and snow events were held in clusters around Cortina, Valtellina, and the Fiemme Valley. A new 12,000-seat multi-use arena designed by David Chipperfield constructed in Milan's Santa Giulia district hosted ice hockey. Stadio San Siro in Milan hosted the opening ceremony, and the historic Verona Arena in Verona hosted the closing ceremony. Athletes stayed in several Olympic villages, depending on the location of their sport; Milan Olympic Village, Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympic Village, or in hotels.

Milan cluster

Cortina d'Ampezzo cluster

Valtellina cluster

Val di Fiemme cluster

Verona

Speed skating venue selection

During the bidding process, the bidding committee proposed that the speed skating events could be held at the existing Ice Rink Piné in Baselga di Piné. Despite the infrastructure being ready, it required a roof, which impact and cost studies indicated would be costly, potentially exceeding the budget. The committee deliberated over three choices: building an ice rink in the pavilions of Fiera Milano (with a possibility to be permanent or temporary), options that would require significant structural work, or move the events to the Oval Lingotto in the city of Turin, which required no structural changes.

The venue, which was constructed to host speed skating during the 2006 Winter Olympics and after the Games, has hosted events such as exhibitions, fairs, and conferences. The venue hosted the same sport in the 2007 Winter Universiade. In April 2023, it was estimated that the temporary ice rink in Fiera Milano would cost nearly €20 million, which would be paid for with private funds. The proposal to use Turin's Oval Lingotto received opposition from Milan-area officials, as Turin was part of the initial stages of the project but later withdrew. One of the spokespersons to reject this proposal was Giuseppe Sala (the mayor of Milan) and officials from the host regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Fiera Milano was confirmed as the speed skating venue in April 2023.

Olympic torch

The Olympic torch relay started on 26 November 2025 with the flame lighting in Olympia, Greece, and concluded on 6 February 2026 in Milan, Italy, coinciding with the opening ceremony at Stadio San Siro. Along with the 13 regional units and seven regions in Greece, the flame visited the 110 provinces of Italy, making 60 stops over 63 days across 12,000 kilometres (7,500 mi). The Olympic torch was unveiled on 14 April 2025 in parallel events held in Milan and Osaka, Japan. It was simultaneously revealed at the Triennale di Milano and at the Italian pavilion at Expo 2025 as a way of connecting the two sister cities, as Milan had previously hosted Expo 2015. The Olympic torch is light blue whereas the corresponding Paralympic torch is bronze coloured. Named "Essential"; developed by Eni and its subsidiary Versalis, designed by Studio Carlo Ratti Associati and produced in Italy by Cavagna Group, the torches are made primarily of an alloy of recycled aluminium and bronze. They run bio-LPG, a fuel made from renewable materials, produced at the Enilive biorefinery in Gela, and have been designed to be refilled up to ten times in order to cut down on the number of torches produced.

Following the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, there was a low-key handover ceremony in Athens on 4 December 2025. The flame then arrived in Rome to visit all 110 provinces of Italy, involving 10,001 torchbearers. The torch was in Naples for Christmas, in Bari for New Year's Eve, and in Cortina d'Ampezzo on 26 January to commemorate the 70th anniversary of its hosting the 1956 Winter Olympics. While the torch was in Piedmont, a tribute was planned for skier Matilde Lorenzi, who died while training in October 2024. The torch relay visited every UNESCO World Heritage Site in Italy. On 29 November 2024, Italian comedy trio Gli Autogol were announced as official narrators for the torch relay.

Medals

On 15 July 2025, the official medals of the Games were unveiled in Venice, designed as two halves that symbolise the culmination of an athlete and Para athlete's journey and of all those who have walked beside them along the way; it was created by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS). The medals featured an essential design that places emotion and teamwork at its core. They had the traditional Olympic five-ring symbol on one side, with an inscription on the reverse that details the event and commemorates the venue. The medals of several athletes broke after they received them.

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 6 February 2026 at Stadio San Siro in Milan, titled Armonia ("Harmony"). The ceremony was produced by Banijay Live (Balich Wonder Studio). Marco Balich, Creative Lead of the Opening Ceremony, explained that the word harmony derives from Ancient Greek: "It means 'bringing together' in musical terms, different elements." The opening ceremony also featured special performances from American singer Mariah Carey, as well as Italian artists Laura Pausini and Andrea Bocelli. Two Olympic cauldrons were lit in both Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, a first in Games' history.

Sports

The 2026 Winter Olympics featured 116 medal events in 16 disciplines, an increase of seven events and one discipline over Beijing 2022. New medal events included men's and women's dual moguls in freestyle skiing, the return of the men's and women's doubles in luge (replacing the open doubles event), men's and women's team combined events in alpine skiing, women's large hill individual in ski jumping, and a mixed relay team event in skeleton. The Games had the highest percentage of women's participation in Winter Olympic history until that point (Nordic combined remained the only Winter Olympic sport in which only men compete), at 47%.