Countdown has begun! Only six months remain until the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games

Only six months remain until the Opening Ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, which will take place at the San Siro Stadium in Milan on February 6, 2026.

The XXV Olympic Winter Games, also known as Milano-Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from February 6-22, 2026, in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 6-15, 2026.

The Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy, which previously hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.

Milano Cortina 2026 will be the first Olympic Games to be hosted in two cities, Milano and Cortina, two regions, Lombardia and Veneto, and two Autonomous Provinces, Trento and Bolzano, covering a total area of 22,000 km2. It will be the most geographically widespread Olympic Winter Games in history.

Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities on June 24, 2019, at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In February 2026, around 3000 of the world's top winter sports athletes will come together to compete for 114 sets of medals across eight sports and 16 disciplines. Two weeks of pure competitive spirit in Alpine skiing, Ice hockey, Freestyle skiing, Speed and Short track skating, Cross-country skiing, Figure skating, Snowboarding, Bobsleigh, Skeleton, Luge, Ski jumping, Curling, Biathlon competitions, Nordic combined, and Ski mountaineering.

Ski mountaineering will make its debut at the Olympic Winter Games following a successful competition at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games. The sport will feature three events: Men's sprints, Women's sprints, and a Mixed relay.

The Alpine Skiing events will be split across two venues: Cortina d'Ampezzo and Bormio. The Women's races will be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, on the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre piste, and the men's races in Bormio, on the Stelvio Ski Centre piste.

The Women’s alpine skiing events will be hosted at the Olympia delle Tofane, the same venue that hosted the Men’s Downhill at Cortina 1956. In 2021, Cortina hosted the Alpine Ski World Championships.

Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the most charming ski resorts in Italy. The small town is located in the Northern Italian province of Belluno in the Veneto region, near the northeastern border with Austria. Surrounded by the imposing peaks of the Tofana, the Monte Cristallo, and the Sorapis Dolomites, Cortina is known as the "Regina delle Dolomiti". Cortina d'Ampezzo is one of the 12 ski areas of the Dolomiti Superski Ski Paradise, one of the biggest ski areas in the world with 1,200 kilometers of slopes, modern cable cars, and fabulous mountain scenery all around.

Cortina is immersed in a landscape of unparalleled natural beauty, set in the spectacular Dolomite mountains, declared by UNESCO a World Natural Heritage Area.

Cortina d’Ampezzo made its debut on the FIS World Cup with the Men’s Downhill in 1969 and became a fixture on the Women’s Downhill tour for three years beginning in 1975. After a long hiatus, the venue has been an annual stop on the Women’s World Cup since 1993, hosting Downhill and Super-G races on the marvelous Olimpia delle Tofane slope, one of the most spectacular settings on the circuit.

Olimpia delle Tofane will host the Women’s Alpine Skiing competitions from February 7, 2026, starting with the Downhill.

The Men’s alpine skiing competitions will take place at the Stelvio Slope in Bormio, regarded as the Teatro Alla Scala of winter sports.

Bormio is a town and comune in the Lombardy region of the Alps at the center of the upper Valtellina valley. Some of the most beautiful and meaningful pages of alpine skiing were written in Bormio. This is where champions such as Deborah Compagnoni and Pietro Vitalini started their careers, and some of the most beautiful and meaningful pages of alpine skiing were written.

Bormio has a well-earned reputation on the men’s circuit as being one of the most challenging Downhill races in the world, with racers facing a dark, fast, bumpy, and icy ride year after year.

Alongside the Streif of Kitzbuhel, the Stelvio slope is considered to be one of the most technical and spectacular slopes in the world.

The first race will be the Downhill on February 8, 2026.