In 2026, Italy will host the Winter Olympic Games for a third time, 70 years after the Cortina Games in 1956, and 20 years after Torino 2006. Italy also hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Italy has a long tradition in the Winter Olympic Games, both as a participant and as a host. Italian athletes have competed in all editions of the Winter Games, earning 141 Olympic medals to date, including 42 gold.
The XXV Olympic Winter Games, also known as Milano Cortina 2026, will be staged from February 6-22, 2026. The Paralympic Winter Games will be held from March 6-15, 2026.
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 e 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.
The Opening Ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026 is scheduled to take place on February 6, 2026, with the Closing Ceremony on February 22, 2026. Milano Cortina 2026 will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 at which the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues.
On 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.
In February 2026, around 2,900 of the world's best winter sports athletes will gather to compete for 114 sets of medals in 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 an Olympic Winter Games after a successful competition was held at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games. Three events will be held in Cortina Milano 2026: Men's and Women's Sprint, and a Mixed Relay.
In Milan, they will compete at the PalaItalia Santa Giulia, the hockey stadium, and the Mediolanum Forum. Cortina d'Ampezzo will host the competitions at the Olympia delle Tofane and the Olympic Ice Stadium. The mountains of Livigno and Bormio will take center stage at the competitions in Valtellina. South Tyrol, along with Anterselva/Antholz, will be where the biathlon takes place. In Trentino, the heart of the Winter Games will be in Predazzo and Tesero in Fiemme Valley and the Valley of Baselga di Piné.
Deborah Compagnoni is one of the Ambassadors of Milano Cortina 2026. With three Olympic gold medals and one silver, she is the most successful Italian skier ever and the first athlete to win a gold medal in three different editions of the Winter Olympics in the history of Alpine Skiing.
Her record includes three golds at Alpine World Ski Championships, three golds, and one silver at the Winter Olympics, and 44 World Cup podiums (including 16 victories).
The Bormio athlete’s resume is made all the more impressive given that she overcame a broken knee as a junior racer, and needed life-saving surgery to remove 27 inches of her intestine in 1990 before winning the Albertville 1992 Olympic Super-G.
The day after, Compagnoni tore her knee ligaments in the Giant Slalom event but returned to win the Giant Slalom gold at the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Games. She defended that title at Nagano 1998, meaning she is also the only alpine skier to earn gold at three consecutive Olympics.
Alpine skiing will be split across two venues, with the Olympia delle Tofane in Cortina hosting the Women's events and the Stelvio Slope in Bormio for the Men's Alpine Skiing events.
Bormio will also hold Ski Mountaineering events.
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.
