Milano Cortina 2026 is here: Winter Olympics return to Italy
The games opened Friday in Milan, then spread across the Dolomites, a 22,000 sq km Olympic region built for TV, travel, and speed.
The 2026 Winter Olympics began on Friday, February 6, and will run until February 22. Italy is hosting again, but not in one city. These are the most spread-out Winter Games yet, split between Milan and mountain venues across northern Italy.
For Indian viewers, the Winter Games can feel easy to miss: they arrive soon after a packed sports calendar and less than 18 months after Paris. But this edition is unusually watchable. More venues, more events, more time zones that suit late-night viewing, and a medal table that still tells a blunt story about who owns winter.
IN NUMBERS
The 2026 Olympics, the most geographically widespread Winter Games
Ice hockey and skiing events are the main focus as the Games return to the Alps.
- Athletes: about 2,871
- Countries: 92
- Medals: 195
- Disciplines: 16
IN-DEPTH
The Winter Olympics are back, and they’re doing that classic Olympic trick: arriving when you’re already busy.
The opening ceremony took place on Friday in Milan. The closing is on February 22. In between, the games hop from city ice to mountain snow, a single Olympics staged across a wide swath of northern Italy.
Milan hosts indoor events and the ceremony. Cortina d’Ampezzo is the Alpine and sliding hub. Livigno takes snowboarding and freestyle. Antholz hosts a biathlon. Ski mountaineering runs on Alpine courses built for steep climbs and fast descents.
Italy knows this job. It last hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006. The pitch this time is reuse: existing arenas where possible, iconic landscapes where it counts, and a format designed for modern viewing. You don’t travel to “the Olympic Park.” You chase the Games across a region.
That geography also explains the medal story. Winter rewards nations that can train in winter, every winter. Norway keeps rising because it is built around cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined sports with many events and many medals.
Germany stacks medals in biathlon and the sliding sports. The US is strong where winter meets spectacle: alpine, freestyle and snowboarding. Canada leans into ice, especially hockey and speed skating. Austria, Sweden and Switzerland sit in the same ecosystem: mountains, clubs, pipelines.
For India, that’s the friction and the fascination. Winter sports are expensive. The weather is rare. The infrastructure is thin. Which is also why the Winter Olympics can feel like a different planet and why it’s worth watching anyway. It’s a global contest shaped as much by geography and policy as by talent.
Then there’s the politics. Russian athletes can compete — but not as Russia. They appear as Individual Neutral Athletes, under eligibility rules set by the International Olympic Committee. Russia and Belarus were suspended by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 for violating the Olympic charter after Russia’s action in Ukraine, and the restriction remains part of the games’ backdrop.
BIG PICTURE
Milano Cortina 2026 is a reminder that the Olympics are not one event. They are two different worlds, summer and winter, with two different power structures. Winter has been Europe-heavy for a century.
The gap doesn’t close quickly. But it does shift at the edges: new events create new pathways, and regions like Asia have been growing their share over time.
The 2026 Winter Olympics began on Friday, February 6, and will run until February 22. Italy is hosting again, but not in one city. These are the most spread-out Winter Games yet, split between Milan and mountain venues across northern Italy.
For Indian viewers, the Winter Games can feel easy to miss: they arrive soon after a packed sports calendar and less than 18 months after Paris. But this edition is unusually watchable. More venues, more events, more time zones that suit late-night viewing, and a medal table that still tells a blunt story about who owns winter.
IN NUMBERS
The 2026 Olympics, the most geographically widespread Winter Games
Ice hockey and skiing events are the main focus as the Games return to the Alps.
- Athletes: about 2,871
- Countries: 92
- Medals: 195
- Disciplines: 16
IN-DEPTH
The Winter Olympics are back, and they’re doing that classic Olympic trick: arriving when you’re already busy.
The opening ceremony took place on Friday in Milan. The closing is on February 22. In between, the games hop from city ice to mountain snow, a single Olympics staged across a wide swath of northern Italy.
Milan hosts indoor events and the ceremony. Cortina d’Ampezzo is the Alpine and sliding hub. Livigno takes snowboarding and freestyle. Antholz hosts a biathlon. Ski mountaineering runs on Alpine courses built for steep climbs and fast descents.
Italy knows this job. It last hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006. The pitch this time is reuse: existing arenas where possible, iconic landscapes where it counts, and a format designed for modern viewing. You don’t travel to “the Olympic Park.” You chase the Games across a region.
That geography also explains the medal story. Winter rewards nations that can train in winter, every winter. Norway keeps rising because it is built around cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined sports with many events and many medals.
Germany stacks medals in biathlon and the sliding sports. The US is strong where winter meets spectacle: alpine, freestyle and snowboarding. Canada leans into ice, especially hockey and speed skating. Austria, Sweden and Switzerland sit in the same ecosystem: mountains, clubs, pipelines.
For India, that’s the friction and the fascination. Winter sports are expensive. The weather is rare. The infrastructure is thin. Which is also why the Winter Olympics can feel like a different planet and why it’s worth watching anyway. It’s a global contest shaped as much by geography and policy as by talent.
Then there’s the politics. Russian athletes can compete — but not as Russia. They appear as Individual Neutral Athletes, under eligibility rules set by the International Olympic Committee. Russia and Belarus were suspended by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 for violating the Olympic charter after Russia’s action in Ukraine, and the restriction remains part of the games’ backdrop.
BIG PICTURE
Milano Cortina 2026 is a reminder that the Olympics are not one event. They are two different worlds, summer and winter, with two different power structures. Winter has been Europe-heavy for a century.
The gap doesn’t close quickly. But it does shift at the edges: new events create new pathways, and regions like Asia have been growing their share over time.