2026 Winter Olympics

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see [[:2026 Winter Paralympics. For the Summer Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal, see 2026 Summer Youth Olympics (disambiguation)]].

XXV Olympic Winter Games

2026 Winter Olympics logo Emblem of the 2026 Winter Olympics
Host city	Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Motto	Sognando insieme (English: Dreaming together)
Events	116 in 16 sports
Stadium	San Siro (opening ceremony) Verona Arena (closing ceremony)

The 2026 Winter Olympics (Italian: Olimpiadi invernali del 2026code: it is deprecated ), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernalicode: it is deprecated ) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in three regions, with the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo hosting. The joint bid from the two cities beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.

This will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy, which previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. It will be the first Olympic Games officially featuring multiple host cities and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. These games will become the first of two consecutive Winter Olympic games to be hosted (at least partially) in the European Alps, followed by The French Alps in 2030. Events will also take place in seven other north-northeastern Italian cities. The games will mark the 20th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Turin, the 70th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the first time that Milan will host an Olympic Games. These games will mark the first Winter Olympics under a new IOC President, who is expected to be elected in 2025 at the 143rd IOC Session.

Bidding process

Main article: Bids for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Host city selection

Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities on 24 June 2019 at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. The three Italian IOC members, Franco Carraro, Ivo Ferriani and Giovanni Malagò, and two Swedish IOC members, Gunilla Lindberg and Stefan Holm, were ineligible to vote as stated in the Olympic Charter.

2026 Winter Olympics bidding results

City	Nation	Votes
Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	47
Stockholm–Åre	Sweden	34
One abstention

Development and preparations

Speed Skating venue selection

During the bid process, the bidding Committee proposed that the speed skating events could be held at the existing Ice Rink Piné in Baselga di Piné. However, despite the infrastructure being ready, it required a roof which impact and cost studies indicated would be very expensive, potentially breaking the budget. So instead, the Committee deliberated over three choices: building a temporary or a permanent ice rink in the pavilions of Fiera Milano, options that would require significant structural work, or move the events to the Oval Lingotto in the city of Turin which required no structural changes. The venue was constructed to host the speed skating during the 2006 Winter Olympics and after the games, hosted a variety of events such as exhibitions, fairs and conferences. The venue was also used at 2007 Winter Universiade to host the same sport and also will host the same event in 2025. In April 2023, it was estimated that the temporary ice rink in Fiera Milano would cost nearly €20 million, which would be paid for with private funds. The proposal to use Turin's Oval Lingotto received opposition from Milan-area officials, including Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala and officials from the host regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Fiera Milano was confirmed as the speed skating venue on 19 April 2023.

Concerns about sliding sports

During the bidding process, the joint Committee proposed to restore the iconic Eugenio Monti olympic track in Cortina, to be relaunched as a federal centre also for sledding and skeleton. The minimum cost of restoring the closed track was initially estimated at €14 million, while in the official Milan-Cortina bid dossier the cost indicated was €100 million (similar budget needed to build the Cesana Pariol track used at the 2006 Winter Olympics). After initially forecasting an expenditure of €40-50 million, the Veneto Region allocated funding up to €85 million to build the new Olympic venues. An annual expenditure of €400,000 was also planned for the management of the facility, which would be open four months a year, to be settled through the establishment of €8 million fund. Due to the rising cost of construction materials, the Veneto region president Luca Zaia turned public in February 2023 that the restoring cost for the Eugenio Monti track could be upwards of €120 million. Calling for tenders to award the work, no company came forward with a bid by the 31 July 2023 deadline; even after that, no company interested in carrying out the work could be found, both for economic reasons and because of the difficulty to complete all works before the start of the Olympics. Due to critical issues, costs and prohibitive times for the total renovation of Cortina track, the mayor of Innsbruck, Austria made a proposal for the use of Igls Olympic Sliding Centre. On 16 October 2023 the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) announced that the track will not be rebuilt to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, and the sliding events could be held outside of Italy. However, the current Italian government wanted the sliding events to remain in Italy, so they are currently studying the possibility to revamp the Cesana Pariol track which hosted the events at the 2006 Winter Olympics, which has been dormant since 2011. Since then, several construction companies have submited bids to study a potential reconstruction of the Eugenio Monti track. A bid was won to build a new sliding track instead of rebuilding the Eugenio Monti track, which will be demolished.

Venues

Milan

Rho

Assago

Bormio

Livigno

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Rasen-Antholz

Predazzo

Tesero

Verona

Locations of the venues in Northern Italy. The host cities are in blue.

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San Siro Stadium in Milan and Verona Arena will be venues of opening and closing ceremonies, respectively.

The Milano-Cortina 2026 proposal involved many of the competition venues used during the 2013 Winter Universiade (Val di Fiemme), held in the province of Trentino and those infrastructures that were still in use that were also used in the 1956 Winter Olympics also held in Cortina D'Ampezzo. All the ice events with the exception of curling will be held in venues in Milan or in their Metropolitan Region. The opening ceremony is scheduled to San Siro Stadium and the closing is scheduled for Verona Arena as the only event possible scheduled for Verona.

Milan Cluster

Venue	Events	Capacity	Status
San Siro Stadium	Opening ceremony	75,817	Existing
PalaItalia	Ice Hockey (main venue)	16,000	New
Fiera Milano, Rho	Ice Hockey	TBA	Existing
	Speed skating	6,500
	International Broadcast Centre	N/A
	Official Press Centre
Forum di Milano, Assago	Figure skating	15,800
	Short track speed skating
Milan Olympic Village		TBA	New

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cluster

Venue	Events	Capacity	Status
Olimpia delle Tofane	Alpine skiing	TBA	Existing
South Tyrol Arena, Antholz	Biathlon	TBA
Olympic Ice Stadium	Curling	TBA
Cortina Sliding Centre	Bobsleigh	TBA	New
	Luge
	Skeleton
Cortina Olympic Village		TBA	Temporary

Valtellina Cluster

Venue	Events	Capacity	Status
Pista Stelvio, Bormio	Alpine skiing	TBA	Existing
	Ski mountaineering
Mottolino/Sitas-Tagliede/Carosello 3000, Livigno	Snowboarding	TBA
	Freestyle skiing
Livigno Olympic Village		TBA	New

Val di Fiemme Cluster

Venue	Events	Capacity	Status
Giuseppe Dal Ben Ski Jumping Arena, Predazzo	Ski jumping	TBA	Existing
	Nordic combined
Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium, Lago di Tésero	Cross-country skiing	50,000
	Nordic combined

Verona

Venue	Events	Capacity	Status
Verona Arena	Closing ceremony	22,000	Existing

Sports

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each discipline.

• Alpine skiing (10) ()
• Biathlon (11) ()
• Bobsleigh (4) ()
• Cross-country skiing (12) ()
• Curling (3) ()
• Figure skating (5) ()
• Freestyle skiing (15) ()
• Ice hockey (2) ()
• Luge (5) ()
• Nordic combined (3) ()
• Short-track speed skating (9) ()
• Skeleton (3) ()
• Ski jumping (6) ()
• Ski mountaineering (3) ()
• Snowboarding (11) ()
• Speed skating (14) ()

On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee proposed that ski mountaineering be included as a sport for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The proposal was approved on 20 July.

On 24 June 2022, the IOC announced the final 2026 program. The alpine mixed team parallel event was removed, while the alpine combined event will now feature two athletes. Along with the three ski mountaineering events, five new events have been added to the Olympic program in four sports that were already on the program. A total of 116 events in eight sports are currently scheduled to be held.

• Freestyle skiing: Men's and women's dual moguls.
• Luge: Women's doubles, with a reversal of the existing doubles event from open to an exclusively men's event.
• Ski jumping: Women's large hill individual.
• Ski mountaineering: Men's and Women's sprint, mixed relay.
• Skeleton: Mixed team.

Participating National Olympic Committees

The following 8 National Olympic Committees have qualified athletes. Seven qualifiers and the hosts, Italy, were confirmed as entered by the IIHF into the ice hockey tournament with Russia provisionally holding another spot.

Participating National Olympic Committees
Canada (48)  Czech Republic (48)  Finland (48)  Germany (25)  Italy (60) (host)  Sweden (25)  Switzerland (48)  United States (48)

Marketing

Emblem

For the first time, the emblem of an Olympic Games was determined via a public vote. On 6 March 2021 during the Sanremo Music Festival finals, two candidate designs titled "Dado" and "Futura" were unveiled by former Italian Olympic gold medallists Federica Pellegrini and Alberto Tomba. They were both designed by Landor Associates. On 30 March 2021, "Futura" was announced as the winning emblem. The emblem consists of a stylized "26" written in a single stroke, representing the impact of "small gestures", and "sport, solidarity, and sustainability".

Mascot

Main article: Tina and Milo

An online vote closing on 28 February 2023 was held among a list of candidates to select the two mascots of the event. The winning candidates, designed by the students of a school in Taverna and inspired by stoats, were presented during the second night of the Sanremo Music Festival 2024 on 7 February 2024. Their names were revealed to be Tina and Milo (derived from the names of the host cities), and are portrayed as sister and brother. The choice of stoats has been explained as being due to these animals' embodiment of "the contemporary Italian spirit" of curiosity, ability to change according to the seasons, and capacity of adaptation to challenging habitats. The two main mascots are additionally accompanied by six snowdrop flowers, called "The Flo".

Characteristics

Milo, a brown stoat, and Tina, a white stoat, are brother and sister "born in the mountains of Italy", who "decided to move to the city". Tina, the main Olympic mascot, symbolizes art, music, and the transformative force of beauty. Milo, the Paralympic mascot, was born without a leg but uses his tail to help him walk, representing ingenuity, willpower, and creativity.

Theme song

During the Sanremo Music Festival 2022 finals, the two final candidates for the official anthem of the event were presented, with a poll opening afterward. On 7 March 2022, "Fino all'alba" ("Until the dawn")—composed by the youth music group La Cittadina of the San Pietro Martire in Seveso, and performed during Sanremo by Arisa — was announced as the winner.

Corporate sponsorship

Sponsors of the 2026 Winter Olympics
Worldwide Olympic Partners AB InBev (Corona Cero) Airbnb Alibaba Group Allianz Coca-Cola-Mengniu Dairy Deloitte Omega SA Procter & Gamble Samsung Electronics Visa Inc.
Premium Partners Anta Sports (Salomon Group) Eni FS Group
Official Partners Emporio Armani Esselunga Juniper Networks Randstad NV
Official Sponsors Grana Padano Intercom Dr. Leitner KIKO Milano Prosecco Salesforce Technogym
Official Supporters Airweave CTS Eventim (TicketOne) Herbalife Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug Valtellina Taste of Emotion

Broadcasting rights

In Italy, domestic pay-tv rights are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, with free-to-air coverage and digital rights owned by RAI under a sub-license agreement with the European Broadcasting Union. On 16 January 2023, the IOC announced that it had renewed its European broadcast rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports to last from 2026 through to 2032. The contract covers pay television and streaming rights to the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics on Eurosport and Discovery+ in 49 European territories. Unlike the previous contract where corporate precursor Discovery, Inc. was responsible for sub-licensing them to broadcasters in each country, free-to-air rights packages were concurrently awarded to the EBU and its members to cover at least 100 hours of each Winter Olympics. RAI then signed a sub-licensing deal with the EBU for Italian free-to-air TV and digital rights.

In the United States, NBC will again broadcast the event as part of its US$7.75 billion contract to air the Olympics through to 2032. Under the National Football League's new media rights agreements that begin in 2023, NBC will also serve as broadcaster of the Super Bowl (which is now rotated among all four of the United States' major commercial FTA networks) during Winter Olympic years that fall under the contract.

• Albania – RTSH
• Asia – Infront Sports & Media
• Australia – Nine
• Austria – ORF
• Belgium – RTBF, VRT
• Brazil – Grupo Globo
• Bulgaria – BNT
• Canada – CBC/Radio-Canada
• China – CMG
• Chile - Chilevisión
• Colombia - Caracol Televisión, Canal RCN
• Croatia – HRT
• Czech Republic – ČT
• Denmark – DR, TV 2
• Europe (except Russia and Belarus) – EBU, Warner Bros. Discovery
• Estonia – ERR
• Finland – Yle
• France – France Télévisions
• Germany – ARD, ZDF
• Greece – ERT
• Hungary – MTVA
• Iceland – RÚV
• Ireland – RTÉ
• Israel – Sports Channel
• Italy – RAI
• Japan – Japan Consortium
• Kosovo – RTK
• Latvia – LTV
• Lithuania – LRT
• Macau – TDM
• Montenegro – RTCG
• Netherlands – NOS
• North Korea – JTBC
• Norway – NRK
• Poland – TVP
• Slovakia – STVR
• Slovenia – RTV
• South Korea – JTBC
• Spain – RTVE
• Sweden – SVT
• Switzerland – SRG SSR
• Ukraine – Suspilne
• United Kingdom – BBC
• United States – NBCUniversal

See also

• Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• List of IOC country codes

External links

• Milano–Cortina 2026

Winter Olympics
Preceded by Beijing	XXV Olympic Winter Games Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo 2026	Succeeded by French Alps