This month, world-class athletes from around the globe will take to the slopes and ice for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The Games will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, two Italian cities more than 250 miles apart, in an effort to maximize sustainability by avoiding the need to build many new venues in one area.
Milano Cortina 2026 will mark the first occasion where two cities will jointly host the Olympics, with Milan primarily hosting ice events and alpine and sliding events taking place in and around Cortina. Over 90 countries will have athletic representation present in Italy.
The Games will take place from Feb. 6 to 22, with fan favorite events, including figure skating, alpine skiing and snowboarding on the docket. Alongside the classic events, ski mountaineering will be making its Olympic debut in Milan. “SkiMo,” as it’s sometimes called, involves scaling mountains on skis, combining uphill skiing and mountaineering disciplines. Sprint, individual, vertical and mixed relays will all be part of the Olympic competition.
As per usual, the anticipation surrounding the Olympics is high, but there are several events in particular gaining extra traction in the run-up to the opening ceremonies. The men’s ice hockey competition will feature NHL players for the first time in 12 years after an agreement among the NHL, the NHL’s Player’s Association, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was struck in July.
NHL players have not participated in the last two Winter Olympics due to concerns surrounding disruption of the regular season in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. While these issues are no longer a major concern, other issues surrounding the hockey competition have arisen. There have been concerns over whether either of Milan’s hockey venues, the Milano Santagiulia and Milano Rho, would be built and ready in time for the competition’s beginning. Ice dimensions are already wider and shorter than standard NHL dimensions, and the venues are still under construction, but NHL officials have monitored a test event at the site and appeared pleased with the progress of construction. While accommodations have been reported as “less than ideal,” players are still committed to going, and hockey fans can look forward to the tournament truly featuring the best players in the world.
Everyone loves a redemption story, and this Olympics has no shortage of them. American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, widely considered the greatest alpine skier of all time, had an extremely disappointing performance at the 2022 Games, recording a Did Not Finish (DNF) in two events — the slalom and giant slalom — both in which she was favored to win the gold medal.
Unfortunately, she did not bring any medals home, a shocking result for the only person in history with over 100 World Cup race wins. As of Dec. 16, 2025, Shiffrin has won five World Cup races in a row, including four slalom victories thus far in the 2025-26 season.
Another familiar name to skiing fans is American alpine skier Lindsey Vonn. Vonn retired in 2019 at age 35, but announced her return to the slopes in November 2024, and will partake in her fifth Olympics in Milan, eight years since her last Olympics in Pyeongchang. Injuries have taken her out of competition for parts of several seasons, but she still boasts 84 World Cup wins and held the record for most World Cup wins by a woman until Shiffrin broke her record in 2023. Vonn is widely considered among one of the great skiers of all time, and has recorded two victories in World Cup downhills this season at age 41.
As many around the world are hunkered down in freezing cold weather, fans of the Winter Olympics can watch on NBC and stream the events on Peacock.
