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- Milan Cortina 2026 will be the most geographically diverse Winter Olympics.
- Ninety percent of venues are existing or temporary, with events in Milan, Cortina, and more.
- New events include ski mountaineering and women's doubles luge; construction challenges remain.
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — The Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are being called the most widespread Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in history. The nearly five-hour drive between Milan and Cortina, Italy, highlights just how geographically broad the Games' venues are.
Milan Cortina 2026 is the first Winter Games to fully embrace the International Olympic Committee's new cost-cutting reforms. Impressively, 90% of the venues already exist or will be temporary.
The Games feature two main clusters of events: Milan and Cortina. Additionally, athletes will compete in three other mountain venues, and the closing ceremony will be held in a 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheater in Verona.
One of the highlights of Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2034 Winter and Paralympic Games is the geography of the venues. Fraser Bullock, then-president of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, emphasized the unique proximity of all the venues.
"I think one of the biggest benefits that we have that is unique anywhere in the world is the proximity of all the venues because they're all within a one-hour drive of the village," Bullock told KSL in July 2024.
"I can go and see an event at Utah Olympic Park in the morning, then attend a speed skating event in the early afternoon," he continued. "And then I can go to Delta Center to watch figure skating that night and then join a celebration downtown."
One year out and not quite ready
In Italy, to celebrate one year of the Games, KSL had the chance to make the trek.
Passing through small villages, taking major highways and smaller roads, and navigating mountain tunnels, the views are breathtaking. Cortina is a beautiful mountain resort where alpine skiing, biathlon, curling, bobsled, luge, and skeleton events are set to take place.
However, even one year out, construction is still underway, and organizers are running out of time to finish before the Games become even more widespread.
The sliding track in Cortina is still only half-completed. The International Olympic Committee has set a deadline for the end of March for the track to pass pre-certification tests. If it fails, the backup plan is to move the sliding competitions across the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Placid, New York.
Organizers remain optimistic that the track will be finished in time.
What's new for 2026?
Milan Cortina 2026 will feature the debut of one new sport and six new events.
- Ski Mountaineering will hand out its first-ever Olympic medals at the Games. "Skimo," as it's called, involves a race up and down a mountain course where athletes alternate between being on skis and on foot with their skis on their backs. The sport is rooted in the Alps and is dominated by European athletes.
- Women's Doubles Luge is on the program for the first time ever. Doubles Luge has been a part of the Winter Olympics for decades, open to both men and women, but only men competed. A pair of American lugers, Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby, are two-time bronze medalists in the world championships and are expected to do well in Milan Cortina.
- Ski Jumping: Women's Large Hill will be the second individual women's ski jumping event added to the Olympics, bringing the number of individual events for female athletes to the same amount as males.
- Mixed Team Skeleton is the newest mixed-gender event to be added to the Games. Male-female team events in biathlon, figure skating and luge debuted in 2014, curling in 2018 and ski aerials, ski jumping and snowboard cross mixed team events were added in 2022.
- Alpine Skiing: Team Combined will replace the sport's individual combined event which has been held at the last 10 Winter Olympic games. Now, rather than a single skier's combined times for downhill and slalom being added together for a final time, a nation can qualify up to four teams per event and the best combined time per team of two skiers, wins.
- Freestyle Skiing: Women's and Men's Dual Moguls will bring a second medal event to moguls skiing. In dual moguls, skiers compete head-to-head in a bracket-style elimination format. The event has been in the World Championships since 1999 but never in the Olympic Games.
The Opening Ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games is Feb. 6, 2026, at the San Siro Stadium in Milan. Competition begins Feb. 4, 2026. There will be 116 medals will be up for grabs.
