By: Matthew S. Taylor
The 2026 Winter Olympics are set to kick off during the opening ceremony on Friday, Feb. 6. For the first time in history, the Olympic Games will be officially named after two co-hosting cities: Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. These will be Italy’s fourth time to host the Games, as well as the second time the Winter Olympics have visited Cortina d’Ampezzo, where they were first held in 1956.
There are a number of things that make these Games special. The venues will be spread over 22,000 square kilometers (~8,500 square miles) in Northern Italy. As a result, the traditional single Olympic Village will be replaced by six separate housing locations near the venues for each type of competition. The host cities are nearly a five-hour drive apart, so two cauldrons will be lit simultaneously for the first time in history.
Those interested in the new sports and events being added to the Games have a lot to look forward to. Ski Mountaineering (sometimes referred to as “Skimo”), the only brand-new sport, involves competitors racing uphill on skis or on foot before skiing back down. For the first time, women will compete in their own Large Hill Ski Jumping competition, an event previously reserved only for men. Other newly added events include a Skeleton Mixed Team Relay, allowing a team of one male and one female per nation to compete together for gold, and Dual Moguls, which will feature two skiers racing side-by-side in an intense bracket-style elimination.
Star players from the National Hockey League are set to return to the Olympic Winter Games for the first time since Sochi 2014. After 12 years of disagreements and the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2022 schedule, an agreement was finally reached for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to cover costs for travel, insurance, and accommodations.
A major narrative has evolved around the return of Lindsey Vonn, a three-time Olympic medalist who became the first American woman to win gold in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She has received countless accolades beyond the Olympics, including 20 World Cup Crystal Globes, a milestone that set a historic record for the sport, as well as eight World Championship medals. She retired in 2019 due to chronic pain yet chose to return with Team USA at 41 years old. Vonn aims to make history as the oldest woman to ever compete in Olympic Alpine racing.
Despite the excitement of Vonn’s return, she suffered a heartbreaking accident on Friday, Jan. 30, when she lost control in a low-visibility World Cup race in Switzerland. After receiving medical attention on the slope, she was seen clutching her left knee in distress and was airlifted to a nearby hospital by helicopter. After she was forced to withdraw from her final pre-Olympic races, Vonn later confirmed she was diagnosed with a hairline fracture. Despite the injury, she remains hopeful that she will be able to compete in Italy in just a matter of days.
These will be the most gender-balanced Winter Games in history. Women make up 47% of the athletes, a significant increase from the 44.7% recorded at the previous Beijing Winter Games in 2022. While the program falls just short of the 50% parity achieved during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the shift represents a major historical achievement for winter sports.
In another major change from prior events, 92% of the venues are pre-existing structures. The Opening Ceremony will be held at San Siro Stadium, home of Italian football clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan, while the Closing Ceremony will take place on Feb. 22 in the Verona Arena, a historic Roman amphitheater. Despite this focus on reuse, local experts have still criticized the environmental impact of constructing the new bobsled track, which required the felling of hundreds of ancient trees, and the massive water demands required to produce millions of cubic yards of artificial snow. Organizers have promised to plant up to 10,000 new trees as compensation.
As it has been many times in the past, the Olympics have also become a global political stage. Members of the U.S. delegation will be protected by a unit known as the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). As an investigative arm that has supported previous Olympics, HSI is part of the same agency currently carrying out a high-profile immigration crackdown in the United States. After the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, declared that the agency is “not welcome” in his city. On Saturday, Jan. 30, hundreds of Italian protesters gathered in Milan’s Piazza XXV Aprile—a site significant for Italy’s historical liberation from fascism—to demonstrate against the deployment. While these political tensions remain high in Italy, those watching from across the Atlantic remain focused on how to witness these historic moments as they unfold in real-time.
For Southern students hoping to watch, NBC and Peacock are the primary homes for all U.S. coverage. Because Italy is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, most live events will occur in the morning or early afternoon. The Opening Ceremony will stream live on Friday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m. EST, with a primetime replay following at 8 p.m. EST. The Peacock app will be the standout option for fans, offering every single one of the 116 medal events live and on-demand. While these are likely to conflict with class times, the Games provide a unique opportunity to connect with fans across the globe or simply study with some high-stakes international competition in the background.
