Where is the Winter Olympics 2026? A complete UK guide to Milan–Cortina

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be staged in Italy, with competitions spread across Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and several Alpine regions in the north of the country. Officially branded as Milan–Cortina 2026, the Games will run from 6 to 22 February 2026, followed by the Paralympic Winter Games in March. This structure and timetable have been confirmed by organisers and the International Olympic Committee, according to The WP Times editorial team, citing the official Games website.

For British audiences asking where is the Winter Olympics 2026, the answer points to a significant shift in how the Games are hosted. Rather than relying on a single city, Italy will deliver the Olympics across a network of urban and mountain venues, combining Milan’s role as a global city with the Alpine tradition of Cortina and neighbouring regions. Organisers say the approach reflects modern Olympic priorities, including sustainability, reduced construction and closer alignment with existing winter sports infrastructure.

Below is a UK-focused guide explaining where the Winter Olympics 2026 are being held, why Milan–Cortina represents a turning point for the Games, and what British viewers should watch for — from Team GB medal prospects to venues, headline athletes and the long-term legacy of Italy’s third Winter Olympics.

Where is the Winter Olympics 2026 being held

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be hosted across multiple locations in northern Italy, rather than in a single city. This makes Milan–Cortina 2026 the most geographically distributed Winter Olympics in history, reflecting a deliberate shift by organisers and the International Olympic Committee towards sustainability, cost control and the reuse of existing venues.

Instead of building an entirely new Olympic city, Italy is staging events in places that already have the infrastructure, climate and sporting heritage required for elite winter competition. According to the Renewz editorial team, citing the official Milano Cortina 2026 website, this “multi-hub” model is now considered the blueprint for future Winter Games.

Key host locations at Milan–Cortina 2026

• Milan
  Milan serves as the ceremonial and organisational heart of the Games. The Opening Ceremony will take place at San Siro Stadium, while the city will also host ice hockey, speed skating, the main media centre and core Olympic operations. As Italy’s second-largest city, Milan provides transport capacity, accommodation and global visibility that a mountain resort alone could not sustain.
• Cortina d’Ampezzo
  Cortina, one of the most famous Alpine resorts in the world, returns to the Olympic stage 70 years after hosting the 1956 Winter Games. In 2026, it will host Alpine skiing, curling and sliding sports such as bobsleigh, skeleton and luge. Cortina represents the traditional, high-altitude identity of the Winter Olympics.
• Livigno
  Located near the Swiss border, Livigno will stage snowboard and freestyle skiing events. The resort is already a major international winter sports destination, allowing competitions to be held with minimal new construction.
• Predazzo and Val di Fiemme
  These neighbouring venues in the Trentino region will host Nordic skiing and ski jumping. Val di Fiemme is a regular World Cup and World Championship host, particularly in cross-country skiing, making it one of the most established Nordic venues in Europe.
• Anterselva (Antholz)
  Anterselva, in South Tyrol, will be the venue for biathlon. It is widely regarded as one of the sport’s most iconic locations and has hosted multiple World Championships, offering high altitude, challenging conditions and strong spectator interest.

Why the Games are spread across Italy

The decision to spread Milan–Cortina 2026 across several regions is not accidental. Organisers argue that the scale of the modern Winter Olympics — with nearly 3,000 athletes and 116 medal events — makes it impractical for a single resort to host everything. By using a network of existing venues:

• fewer permanent facilities need to be built
• environmental impact is reduced
• costs are kept under tighter control
• local winter sports communities are directly involved

IOC President Kirsty Coventry has described this approach as “the new normal” for future Winter Games, particularly as climate, sustainability and public spending come under increasing scrutiny. For viewers asking where is the Winter Olympics 2026 being held, the answer is therefore both simple and complex: Italy, but across a carefully coordinated mix of global city venues and high-altitude Alpine locations, each chosen for what it already does best.lympic approach promoted by the International Olympic Committee, prioritising sustainability and reduced construction.

Why Milan–Cortina is a historic Winter Olympics

Italy will host the Winter Olympics for the third time, following Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics and Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. Yet Milan–Cortina 2026 marks a clear break from previous editions — not only in scale, but in how the Games are designed, governed and delivered.

At the heart of that difference is size. Milan–Cortina 2026 will feature 116 medal events, the highest total in Winter Olympic history, reflecting the steady expansion of disciplines, formats and mixed-gender competitions. The modern Winter Games have grown to a point where no single resort — however iconic — could realistically host them alone. That reality explains the geographical spread from Lombardy’s urban centres to the Dolomites, a model organisers say is now unavoidable. Another defining moment is the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering, a sport long rooted in Alpine culture but never before included on the Olympic programme. Its addition signals the IOC’s intention to modernise the Games while reconnecting them with authentic mountain traditions.

Milan–Cortina 2026 will also be the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics on record. Women will compete in more than 53 per cent of all medal events, driven by the expansion of women’s disciplines and the growth of mixed events. This milestone reflects decades of reform within the Olympic movement and positions the 2026 Games as a benchmark for equality in winter sport.

A further historic shift comes in men’s ice hockey, with NHL players returning to the Olympics after a 12-year absence. Athletes contracted to the National Hockey League last competed at the Games in 2014. Their return restores the Olympic tournament’s status as the sport’s highest international stage and significantly raises competitive and commercial interest.

Taken together, these factors explain why Milan–Cortina 2026 is widely seen as a turning point. It is not simply Italy’s third Winter Olympics, but a test case for how the Games will function in the future — larger, more inclusive, more decentralised and increasingly shaped by sustainability and realism rather than spectacle alone.

What British viewers need to know

As the Winter Olympics return to Europe, Milan–Cortina 2026 arrives at a moment of unusual significance for British sport. Team GB enters these Games with broader medal depth than in previous cycles, growing strength across both traditional and freestyle disciplines, and realistic expectations shaped by recent world championship results rather than optimism alone. At the same time, the 2026 Olympics will be the largest, most gender-balanced and most geographically complex Winter Games ever staged — factors that directly affect how events unfold and where British chances may lie.

For UK viewers, the story is not only about where the Winter Olympics 2026 are being held, but about what makes this edition different: a credible opportunity for Great Britain to challenge its own medal ceiling, a programme reshaped by equality reforms, and a competition landscape altered by the return of NHL players and the absence of Russia. What follows is what British audiences should know as Milan–Cortina approaches — from medal prospects and pressure points to the wider context shaping the Games.

Could this be Team GB’s most successful Winter Olympics

Great Britain has never won more than five medals at a single Winter Olympics, but that long-standing ceiling could be tested at Milan–Cortina 2026. UK Sport has set a projected medal range of four to eight, while senior officials within Team GB believe the spread of venues and the current strength of British winter athletes offer the clearest opportunity yet to surpass previous totals.

Recent results suggest cautious optimism. British athletes have collected medals across multiple disciplines at world championship level, underlining a broader competitive base than in past Olympic cycles. Medal prospects for Great Britain include:

• Curling, following gold and silver at the Beijing 2022 Games
• Snowboarding, led by World Cup winner Mia Brookes
• Freestyle skiing, with Kirsty Muir considered a realistic podium contender
• Skeleton and bobsleigh, where British athletes have secured recent world medals

That said, expectations remain tempered by recent experience. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Team GB failed to win a medal until the final weekend, eventually salvaging the campaign through curling. The lesson for British fans is familiar: Winter Olympics rarely unfold according to forecasts.

The most gender-equal Winter Olympics ever

Milan–Cortina 2026 will mark a significant milestone in the evolution of the Winter Games. When the Winter Olympics debuted in 1924, only 11 women competed. In 2026, organisers expect around 1,300 female athletes to take part — the highest number in history. Key equality benchmarks include:

• 50 women’s medal events, the most ever at a Winter Games
• 12 mixed-gender events, reflecting the continued expansion of shared formats
• Full gender balance across 12 of the 16 disciplines, another record

The 2026 Games are also the first to be overseen by Kirsty Coventry, the first woman elected president of the International Olympic Committee — a symbolic moment that underscores the broader shift taking place within the Olympic movement.

One notable exception remains. Nordic combined is still not open to women, after the IOC declined to add a women’s event to the 2026 programme. The decision continues to attract criticism from athletes and equality advocates, highlighting that while Milan–Cortina represents major progress, it does not yet mark full parity across all winter sports.

NHL stars return to Olympic ice hockey

One of the clearest ways in which Milan–Cortina 2026 differs from recent Winter Games lies on the ice. For the first time since 2014, players contracted to the National Hockey League will compete at the Olympics, after being absent from both the 2018 and 2022 Games. Their return restores the men’s ice hockey tournament to its highest competitive level and makes it one of the headline attractions for UK audiences.

NHL participation fundamentally changes the balance of the competition. The United States men's national ice hockey team arrive with renewed ambition, chasing their first Olympic gold since the iconic “Miracle on Ice” in 1980. Traditional European powers such as Finland men's national ice hockey team, Sweden men's national ice hockey team and Slovakia men's national ice hockey team are also strengthened by rosters packed with NHL experience, raising the overall standard of play.

The competitive landscape is further shaped by the continued exclusion of Russia men's national ice hockey team, which remains banned from Olympic competition. That absence alters medal expectations and opens space for other nations to challenge for the podium.

In total, 11 of the 12 men’s teams at Milan–Cortina 2026 will feature NHL players, ensuring an elite tournament closer in quality to a World Cup than the diluted Olympic fields seen in recent years. For British viewers, it is one of the most compelling reasons why the question where is the Winter Olympics 2026 different has a clear answer: the world’s best ice hockey players are finally back.

Milan–Cortina 2026 vs Cortina 1956

With Cortina d’Ampezzo returning to the Olympic stage, the resort becomes only the fourth location in history to host the Winter Olympics twice. Yet the contrast between 1956 and 2026 underlines just how profoundly the Games have evolved over seven decades.

In 1956, Cortina staged the Olympics almost entirely on its own, hosting a compact programme designed for a far smaller sporting world. By 2026, the scale of the Winter Games has expanded beyond what any single resort could accommodate, forcing a fundamentally different approach.

How the Games have changed

The comparison highlights not only growth, but a shift in philosophy. Modern Winter Olympics prioritise broadcast demands, athlete welfare, sustainability and year-round venue use — factors barely considered in the post-war era.

One venue, however, connects both generations. Cortina’s Olympic Ice Stadium hosted events during the 1956 Games and returns in 2026 as the curling venue. Now fully enclosed and modernised, it stands as a rare physical link between the early romanticism of the Winter Olympics and their contemporary, industrial-scale reality.

Record-chasing athletes to watch

Beyond venues and formats, Milan–Cortina 2026 could also reshape the all-time Winter Olympic medal table, with several athletes approaching historic milestones. Among those in focus:

• Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt (Germany, luge)
  The dominant duo are aiming for a seventh and eighth Olympic gold, which would place them among the most successful Winter Olympians in history.
• Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway, cross-country skiing)
  Already a five-time Olympic champion, Klæbo could overtake every Winter Olympian before him if his recent World Championship form carries into 2026.
• Arianna Fontana (Italy, short track speed skating)
  Fontana is chasing a medal at her sixth consecutive Winter Games, a feat unmatched in her sport and one that would further cement her status as Italy’s most decorated Winter Olympian.

Klæbo, in particular, represents a generational moment. Should he replicate his recent dominance on the Olympic stage, Milan–Cortina 2026 could mark the point at which the hierarchy of Winter Olympic greatness is fundamentally rewritten.

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