Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games
- Raúl Revuelta
- Aug 5
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 7
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 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.
Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities on June 24, 2019, at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Top athletes from around the world will participate in 16 Olympic disciplines at the Milano Cortina 2026 Games. 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.
In Milan, they will compete at the PalaItalia Santa Giulia, the hockey stadium, and the Mediolanum Forum.
The women's Alpine Skiing 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.
South Tyrol and Anterselva/Antholz will be the locations for the biathlon.
In Trentino, the heart of the Winter Games will be in Predazzo and Tesero in the Fiemme Valley, and the valley of Baselga di Piné.
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.
In 2020 Cortina d’Ampezzo was ready to host the World Cup Finals, but the pandemic breakout forced FIS to cancel the event.
The winter sports events circuit managed finally to restart in 2021 and in February Cortina d'Ampezzo brilliantly pulled off the most important international event held during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cortina 2021 Alpine Ski World Championships.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be the first Olympic Games featuring multiple host cities in an official form and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 at which the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. This will be the third time Italy will host the Winter Olympics, twenty years after Turin 2006 and 70 years after the previous games held in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956. The Cortina Olympics in 1956 were the first Winter Olympics televised to a multi-national audience.
In February 2024, after 1,600 entries and a public poll, stoat siblings Tina and Milo were announced as the official mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Their names are the diminutives of the two host cities: Tina for Cortina and Milo for Milano.
Six little snowdrops known as ‘The Flo’, inspired by the sketch of the pupils of the Istituto Compresivo Sabin, will also accompany the siblings in highlighting the fun and adventure of Milano Cortina 2026.
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