A skier's guide to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games

Telegraph

31-03-2025

If you're a British skier or snowboarder – or indeed a fan of winter sport of any kind – it's hard not to get excited about the impending arrival of the Winter Olympics Games.
It's the one time every four years when snowsports intrude on the national conversation, where the Ski Sunday team take over the BBC, and even your elderly relatives suddenly become experts on Dave Ryding's splits, or Mia Brookes' cab 1440s.
The upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which will take place between February 4 and February 22 2026, are particularly exciting. After the Covid-affected Beijing Games in 2022, Pyeongchang 2018 in South Korea, Sochi 2014 in Russia, and Vancouver 2010 – all of which were in slightly awkward time zones for UK viewers – these will be the first Winter Olympics staged in Europe for 20 years. Italy is just one hour ahead of the UK, which means the wall-to-wall coverage will be watchable in real time.
The events will take place not just in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, but in a range of well-known ski resorts and venues across north-eastern Italy. Several British snow sports athletes stand a good chance of winning a medal, as well as our all-conquering skeleton and curling teams. And because it's Italy, you can guarantee the welcome will be warm, the local fans will be particularly passionate, and the atmosphere will be off the scale.
Here's everything you need to know about the event, how to visit, where to watch and what it means for ski holidays in Italy during the 2025/26 ski season.
When is the next Winter Olympics?
Where is the next Winter Olympics?
How do you get tickets for the Winter Olympics?
Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic venues
What to book
How to watch at home
Team GB's best medal hopes
When is the next Winter Olympics?
Winter Olympic events for Milano Cortina 2026 will kick off on February 4 2026, and run until February 22. The official opening ceremony will take place on the evening of Friday February 6, but as often happens, some competitions will start earlier.
The first competition will be the preliminary rounds of the mixed doubles curling on February 4. The first medal event of the Games will be the men's downhill skiing, which takes place on the morning of Saturday February 7.
The Milano Cortina Paralympics will run from March 6 to 15 2026.
Where is the next Winter Olympics?
Milano Cortina 2026 will take place across a variety of venues in the northeast of Italy. These include Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, obviously, but also the ski resorts of Bormio and Livigno in the Valtellina, Predazzo and Tesero in the Val di Fiemme, Anterselva/Antholz in Süd-Tyrol, and the city of Verona.
This will make it the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history, with events spread out across an area of 22,000 square kilometres.
There are multiple reasons for dividing up the games like this, including the organisers' expressed desire to showcase the diversity and beauty of the wider region. But less construction is also better for the environment, and costs less. After 2018, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopted reforms aimed at cutting 'cost, complexity, risk and waste,' but Milano Cortina is the first Winter Games to fully embrace these.
By taking advantage of existing infrastructure, the organisers hope to lessen the chances of being left with the expensive white elephants and empty stadiums that have so often been the legacy of the Olympics past.
How do you get tickets?
Tickets for Milano Cortina 2026 will go on sale on a 'first come, first served' basis, from April 8 2025. The only place to buy tickets is the official ticketing website: tickets.milanocortina2026.org
The only exception is for official Hospitality and VIP packages (including tickets), which are provided by On Location. These will be available from the official hospitality website: hospitality.milanocortina2026.org
There will be special early-bird prices on offer until May 6 2025. Fans who are keen to secure their place can sign-up in advance here for notifications on the official registration page (without necessarily being tied into any purchase).
Tickets are already available for the Paralympic Winter Games from the same official site. The ticketing window opened on March 6 2025. Both Olympic and Paralympic ticket purchases are limited to 25 event tickets per account.
Organisers are at pains to remind people that only tickets sold through the official website will be valid, and that reselling any tickets on unauthorised platforms constitutes an offence under Italian law.
Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic venues
Milan
The Olympic opening ceremony, which kicks off at 8pm local time (7pm UK time) on Friday, February 6 2026, promises to be spectacular. While details are a closely-guarded secret, the venue alone will make it worth a watch. The ceremony will take over the 75,000-seat San Siro stadium, home to two of the biggest football clubs in Europe, AC Milan and Internazionale.
Milan is also building a new, 16,000-seat ice arena, the PalaItalia Santa Giulia. Designed by British architect David Chipperfield, the stadium is one of only two permanent venues being built specifically for the games. It will host most of the ice hockey matches, including the finals.
The Forum di Milano, Milan's existing ice arena, will host the figure skating and short track skating events. A temporary ice rink in the city's Fiera Milano centre, more commonly used for trade fairs, will host speed skating, and the remaining hockey matches.
Events hosted
Opening Ceremony (Feb 6); Ice Hockey (Feb 5 to Feb 22); Speed Skating (Feb 7 to Feb 21); Short Track Skating (Feb 10 to Feb 20); Figure Skating (Feb 6 to Feb 21).
Cortina d'Ampezzo
The historic town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the Dolomites, has a fine Olympic pedigree, having hosted the games once before in 1956. Exactly 50 years later, it will be home to three venues.
The Olympia di Tofane piste – so called because it was used for the 1956 games – will play host to the women's Alpine ski racing events. These are Downhill, Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super-G, as well as the new Team Combined event, where two skiers from the same nation combine their times in Downhill and Slalom events.
The slope makes a naturally-stunning sporting arena. Its steepest section, the Schuss, squeezes between two towering pillars of Dolomitic rock, reaching a maximum gradient of 65 per cent.
Watching the likes of Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone, or comeback queen Lindsey Vonn literally fly down it at speed will be quite something.
Cortina's second 2026 venue is the Sliding Centre, a brand-new bobsled/skeleton/luge track. Built at breakneck speed, at a cost of €118 million, it replaces the century-old bobsleigh track that was used for the 1956 Games, and incorporates some of the same turns. But its construction was not without controversy. Officials from the IOC itself worried that the track was unnecessarily expensive, and activists argued that it damaged the local environment.
The final venue in Cortina is the Curling Stadium, which makes rather better use of existing infrastructure. The original three-sided, wooden-clad structure hosted the opening ceremony on the 1956 Games, and the cauldron which kept the old flame burning is still visible outside.
In 2002, a new glass and steel central section was built to cover what had been an open-air rink. The 2026 Games will see a temporary stand added, as well as a permanent new changing room complex.
Events hosted
Women's Alpine Skiing (Downhill, Feb 8; Team Combined, Feb 10; Super-G, Feb 12; Giant Slalom, Feb 15; Slalom, Feb 18); Bobsleigh (Feb 15 to 22); Skeleton (Feb 12 to 15); Luge (Feb 7 to 11); Curling (Feb 4 to 22).
Explore the resort with our Cortina ski guide.
Livigno
Known as 'Little Tibet,' the ski resort of Livigno sits on a high alpine plateau near the Swiss border. Its world-class, Mottolino Snowpark began staging snowboard slopestyle competitions long before the discipline became an Olympic event, playing host to the Burton European Open in 2002 and 2003.
Drawing on this rich freestyle heritage, the Mottolino Park will now host both ski and snowboard Slopestyle, Halfpipe and Big Air events. Details of the slopestyle course are expected to be revealed shortly before the Games, as are the contours of the race track which will host the head-to-head Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross events – regularly among the most-watched events of the games.
On the opposite side of Livigno from Mottolino, the Carosello ski area will host the two more traditional freestyle skiing disciplines – aerials and moguls.
Events hosted
Freestyle Skiing (Slopestyle, Feb 7 to 10; Moguls, Feb 10 to 15; Aerials, Feb 17 to 21; Halfpipe, Feb 19 to 21; Big Air, Feb 14 to 17); Freestyle Snowboarding (Big Air, Feb 5 to 9; Halfpipe, Feb 11 to 13; Slopestyle, Feb 16 to 18) Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom (Feb 8); Snowboard Cross (Feb 12 to 15); Ski Cross (Feb 20 to 21).
Explore the resort with our Livigno ski guide.
Bormio
At the upper end of the Tellina valley, not far from Livigno, lies the ski resort of Bormio. The town has been a holiday destination since Roman times, thanks to its proliferation of natural hot springs. Today, it's best known internationally as Italy's premiere downhill venue – home to one of the most technically-demanding alpine skiing courses in the world.
Opened in 1982, the Stelvio Slope has a vertical drop of over 1,000m and a maximum gradient of 73 per cent. World Cup events are staged here regularly, and it has hosted the World Championships twice, in 1985 and 2005. Competition on this fast, steep course promises to be fierce as the world's best male skiers duke it out for medals in the Downhill, Super-G, GS, Slalom and Team Combined disciplines.
Bormio will also play host to the first-ever Olympic Ski Mountaineering contest. As its name suggests, ski mountaineering normally takes place miles out in the backcountry.
But the competitive form of the discipline, in which athletes use touring skis and skins to climb and descend a pre-prepared course, is popular in Italy. Three sets of medals are up for grabs at the sport's Olympic debut – for men's sprint, women's sprint and mixed team relay.
Events hosted
Men's Alpine Skiing (Downhill, Feb 7; Team Combined, Feb 9; Super-G, Feb 11; Giant Slalom, Feb 14; Slalom, Feb 16); Ski Mountaineering (Sprint, Feb 19; Mixed Team Relay, Feb 21).
Tesero
The small village of Tesero towards the south-western edge of the Dolomites has long been a place of pilgrimage for cross-country skiers. Since 1971, the Val di Fiemme around the village has played host to the Marcialonga, a 70 km-long, mass start cross-country race that now attracts up to 7,000 competitors each year.
Tesero's cross-country skiing stadium, which athletes ski through every year en route to the finish line in nearby Cavalese, will host all the cross-country skiing events of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.
The disciplines include Free and Classic style races, the 10+10km Skiathlon (where participants switch style halfway through), the Freestyle Team Sprint, the 4.75km Team Relay, and the 50km Mass Start Race.
Nordic Combined, which has been part of the Winter Olympic program since 1924, involves adding scores from cross-country skiing and ski jumping together.
Events hosted
Cross-Country Skiing (Feb 2 to 7); Nordic Combined (Feb 11 to 19).
Predazzo
Just around the corner from Tesero lies the Ski Jumping Stadium of Predazzo. Ski jumping has been contested on the nearby Rolle Pass since the 1930s, but this dedicated facility wasn't completed until 1989. Ahead of the 2026 Games, it's undergoing a complete refurb, including the construction of new jumps.
Ski jumping disciplines include men's and women's Small Hill and Large Hill, the men's Super Team and the Mixed Team competition. The ski jumping component of the Nordic combined events, known as Gundersen Large Hill or Gundersen Normal Hill, will also be contested here.
Events hosted
Ski Jumping (Feb 7 to 16); Nordic Combined (Feb 11 to 19).
Anterselva / Antholz
Listed in all the official Olympic literature by both its Italian and German names, Anterselva/Antholz, in the German-speaking province of Süd-Tyrol is the northernmost location for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Surrounded by the peaks of the Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park, the ski resort has long been a centre for biathlon, with a dedicated arena that's hosted World Cup events since the 1970s. The sport, which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, will be contested across a range of different distances and formats in the Games, with five sets of men's and women's medals up for grabs, as well as a further set of medals for the 4x6km mixed relay.
Events hosted
Biathlon (Feb 8 to 21).
Verona
In fair Verona (as Shakespeare had it) is where the Olympic organisers have elected to stage the final act of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games – and one look at the venue they've chosen tells you why.
The Arena di Verona is a stunningly well-preserved Roman amphitheatre, dating back to 30AD. Once used for gladiatorial fights to the death, the 22,000-seat stadium has hosted more peaceful spectacles since it was revived as a venue in the 1850s. These include regular opera performances, and concerts by the likes of Pink Floyd, Muse, and Paul McCartney.
As with the opening ceremony, details are being kept under wraps. But you can be sure the closing send-off won't disappoint.
Events hosted
Closing Ceremony (Feb 22).
The full Olympic schedule, including the timings of all heats and qualifiers, can be found here.
What to book: How to watch on the ground
If you want to stay in one of the Olympic host resorts during the Games, you'll have to be quick. Elevated prices mean that most UK tour operators aren't offering packages during those weeks. And if you want to stay in Cortina for the week the women's downhill is on, you're looking at €8,000 and upwards for a double room on Booking.com.
There is still some accommodation left in Livigno or Bormio for the dates of the Games, although prices are double what they might be normally. Your best bet is probably to book a holiday in a nearby resort, and travel to the host resort for the day of the event.
How to watch at home
The official Olympic broadcast rights holders for the UK are the European Broadcast Union, and Warner Bros Discovery, which will stream every event live on its Discovery+ Site.
If you don't fancy stumping up for a Discovery+ subscription, however, don't worry.
The BBC has a deal with the main rights holders ensuring that guarantees at least 500 hours of content, and two live events per day, will be available on free-to-air TV across BBC One and Two, and the BBC iPlayer.
What does this mean for regular ski holidays in Italy in 2025/26?
Don't let the elevated prices during the Olympic weeks put you off visiting Italy next season, however. Although the host resorts will be more crowded and more expensive from February 6 22 2026), the impact outside of that period is likely to be largely positive.
Venues are being spruced up, and infrastructure – including access roads that will make for faster transfers – is being improved. Prices are unlikely to stay elevated for long, either before or after the Games. And you can revel in the chance to ski or ride in the footsteps of your Olympic heroes.
Team GB's best medal hopes
Team GB have chosen not to set a medal target for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Eve Muirhead, the Chef de Mission (who herself led the British curling team to a gold in Beijing) has argued that targets are unhelpful and put unnecessary pressure on athletes.
Among the Britons expected to compete, however, there are some genuine medal contenders.
Mia Brookes
Snowboard Slopestyle & Big Air
Among the small but dedicated UK snowboard scene, Mia Brookes has long been flagged as one to watch, and her results in the past few seasons have more than justified the hype. She won the FIS Slopestyle World Championships in 2023, and took gold in the same event at the X Games in January 2024.
Winter 2024/25 saw her win four World Cup medals in Slopestyle (a gold, a silver and two bronzes) and her Big Air results, including two first-place finishes, won her overall season title for the second year in a row.
Born just outside Manchester, Brooks is known for her super-relaxed style, and big bag of technical tricks. Like previous British snowboard medalists Jenny Jones and Billy Morgan, she's a graduate of the English snow dome and dry slope scene – but now regularly beats the best from the world's traditional alpine nations.
Kirsty Muir
Ski Slopestyle & Big Air
It's a long way from a dry ski slope next to an ASDA carpark to the top step of a World Cup Podium. But that's the journey that Aberdeen's Kirsty Muir has made in just over a decade of competitive free skiing.
Like her friend Mia Brooks, Muir impressed at every level of junior competition. Unlike Brookes, she was old enough (just) to qualify for the Beijing games, and as the youngest member of Team GB managed a creditable 5th in Big Air, and 8th in Slopestyle.
Since then, she's racked up a whole series of World Cup podiums and two X Games medals, and she rounded off the 2024/25 season with her first ever World Cup win in Tignes, France.
Dave Ryding
Slalom
Dave Ryding is the most successful ski racer ever to come out of the UK. Over the course of his long and glittering career, he's achieved a whole string of top 10 finishes, and in 2022, he became the first – and so far, only – British alpine skier to win a gold medal in the 60-year history of the World Cup competition. Not bad for a kid from Bretherton, Lancashire, who grew up skiing his local dry slope.
Assuming he qualifies, Milano Cortina will be Ryding's fifth Winter Olympics. But he won't be alone in the start gate – young British slalom racers Billy Major and Laurie Taylor have both finished in the top 10 at World Cup events in recent seasons, and will be hoping to give Ryding a run for his money.
Charlotte Bankes
Snowboard Cross
Charlotte Bankes, who was born in the UK but grew up in France, has been one of the best Snowboard Cross racers on the planet for several years. Her form going into Beijing 2022 put her on track to win a medal, but nothing is certain in the four-abreast carnage of Snowboard Cross, and a small mistake cost her at the quarter-final stage.
Since then, her riding has gone from strength to strength. She took gold in multiple World Cup events last winter, winning the races in China, Turkey, Georgia and – in what we hope we'll take as a good omen – Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Matt Weston
Skeleton
Team GB has an illustrious history when it comes to Skeleton, and going into the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, there are several medal hopes. Chief among these is Matt Weston, a 28-year-old from Surrey who's notched up an incredible string of results in the past few seasons, including two World Championship wins, in 2023 and 2025, and a silver in 2024.
As well as his individual medals, Weston has found success in the mixed team events, most recently paired with Tabitha Stoecker. Other GB Skeleton medal hopefuls include Marcus Wyatt, who finished second to Weston at the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid, and Amelia Coltman, who recently won a World Cup gold with Wyatt in the team event.
Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Arran Gulliver & Greg Cackett
Bobsleigh
The four-man Bobsleigh team led by Brad Hall have recently recorded the best World Championship results by a British team since before the Second World War. In 2023, the crew won a silver medal, and in 2025 they followed this up with a bronze. With more than 20 race medals to his name, Hall is now the most decorated British Bobsleigh pilot in World Cup history.
His current sled team, GB1, is completed by brakeman Greg Cackett, and pushers Arran Gulliver and Taylor Lawrence. Hopes are high that the four can replicate the success of Sochi 2014, where Britain last won a bronze medal, or even top the podium.
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie & Hammy McMillan Jr.
Curling
Having skippered his team to a silver medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, where they narrowly lost out to the Swedes in the final, Scottish curler Bruce Mouat will be hoping to go one better in 2026.
The recent form of Team Mouat – completed by Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr. – suggests you'd be foolish to bet against them. The foursome have won 9 Grand Slam of Curling titles together, including three in the past season.