What do Jamaica, skeletons, and the Dolomites have in common? They will all be present at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games. The 25th Winter Olympics will be held from February 6-22, 2026, between the Italian metropolis of Milan and the cozy ski resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites, a picturesque northern Italian mountain range. This is the first time the Winter Olympics have been held in two distinct cities. Cortina hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956, while Milan had not previously hosted the Olympic Games. There will be 116 events taking place in 8 separate sports, and 93 countries will be represented.
As for the distribution of the events and ceremonies, the legendary San Siro stadium from 1926, home of Inter and AC Milan, will host the Opening Ceremony starring singer Mariah Carey, tenor Andrea Bocelli, and actress Laura Pausini.
Figure skating, speed skating, and ice hockey will be held at various venues across Milan, including the brand-new Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena. Alpine skiing, bobsledding, curling, and luge will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while Valtellina will host snowboarding events, and Val di Fiemme will organize the cross-country skiing and ski jumping events.
Ski mountaineering, or skimo, will make its Olympic debut this year at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Skimo consists of trekking up an ascent on skis while wearing skins, grippy slips of nylon and mohair (Angora goat yarn), to eventually reach a peak and ski down to the finish line. There will be three total ski events, which will be held at the Bormio ski resort.
Passionate skier Evan Kibler ‘28 states, “I’m excited about ski mountaineering since it’s a good addition to traditional skiing. A big part of skiing is hiking up the mountain, and I think that that was an underrepresented part in the Olympics that now makes the Olympics more complete.”
Regarding the most prolific athletes and teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, a 2-time gold medalist for Alpine skiing, and Chloe Kim, a 2-time gold medalist in Snowboarding at just 25 years old, will be the most exciting to watch.
The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games have a budget of 1.9 billion dollars, which is mostly funded by private companies, notably NBC. Some of the official partners of the Winter Olympics are Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Allianz, Visa, and Alibaba. The 2026 Milano Cortina games are expected to bring a $3.2 billion GDP boost for Italy and around 2 million total spectators. The Olympics will surely boost the economic prosperity of the region and increase the popularity of traveling to northern Italy.
Spectators in the US will be able to stream the 2026 Milano Cortina Games on Peacock as well as the NBC Olympics website. It was estimated that 2 billion people followed the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, and that number will most likely repeat itself in 2026. The viewership numbers from 2022 emphasize how the Olympics are the epitome of globalization through common practices.
After Milano-Cortina 2026, the Olympics are coming to Los Angeles, where they will be even more relevant to the Loyola community.
Students will be able to volunteer at multiple venues across Los Angeles such as the Rose Bowl, the new Intuit Dome and SoFi Stadium during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Fans will be able to purchase tickets in a lottery to attend the events and stream the games on Peacock.
