MILAN — The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina snuck up on you, didn’t they?
That’s always the case with the Winter Olympics (Feb. 6-22) and Paralympics (March 6-15), which are smaller and include sports unfamiliar or inaccessible to a good portion of the world. That the last two occurred halfway around the world, in time zones that were not friendly to U.S. audiences, made it even harder to keep them front of mind.
You will want to tune in for these Games, though.
Much like the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, Milano Cortina offers a respite from the malaise that lingers from the COVID pandemic and the divisiveness that continues to make our world feel cruel and small. For two-plus weeks, we can be united, reveling in amazing athletic performances, captivated by the personal stories of sweat sacrifice, and dazzled by the breathtaking beauty of the Dolomites and the Alps.
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“To be able to have them back in the stands in Italy will be a perfect way to end a really blessed career," U.S. speedskater Brittany Bowe said.
Here's your primer on the 10 biggest questions going into the 2026 Winter Olympics.
How spread out will these Olympics be?
Put it this way: Getting around to all the venues could be an Olympic sport in itself.
The Winter Olympics always sprawl, because of the need for mountains. But the Milano Cortina Games are going to be the most geographically spread out in Olympic and Paralympic history, with a footprint just slightly smaller than the entire state of New Jersey.
Most of the indoor events — hockey, speed skating, short-track speedskating and figure skating — are going to be in Milano. For the mountain events, however, organizers are making use of venues already used for World Cups and world championships. And they are not close to one another. Or close to Milano.
The trip from Milano to Cortina, where women’s Alpine, curling and the sliding sports (bobsled, luge and skeleton) will be held, is almost five hours. Livigno, site of snowboarding and freestyle skiing, is about three hours from Milano.
If you want to get to Livigno from Cortina? Pack supplies, water and something to keep yourself entertained, because it’s going to be a roughly six-hour trip. All this assumes, too, that there’s no traffic or weather delays. Given it’s the Olympics and it’s February, and the Paralympics and March, probably best not to count on that.
Is the bobsled track ready?
Yes, though organizers cut it close.
Cortina’s original bobsled track, used in the 1956 Olympics, closed in 2008 because it was getting too expensive to maintain. Milano Cortina’s bid plan called for the track to be renovated, but the idea was abandoned because it was going to cost a boatload of money and there were existing tracks nearby in Switzerland and Austria that could be used.
Then the Italian government raised a fuss, saying all Olympic events needed to be in Italy.
With the Games just two years away, construction on the new Eugenio Monti track began in February 2024. Though there were concerns the $136 million project wouldn’t get done in time — the IOC had Lake Placid on standby — the track was ready for test runs in the spring of 2025 and the IOC gave approval for its use.
“The sliding centre in Cortina has surpassed expectations," Kristin Kloster, chair of the IOC’s coordination commission for Milano Cortina, said in September.
“They have delivered on time. The sliding centre has been tested by athletes already and I think it's all going really, really well,” Kloster said. “So I'm impressed with the work."
Official test events in November were held without fans, because construction was still being one around the sliding center. But the track drew praise from athletes.
“I really love the track!” said U.S. push athlete Azaria Hill, who teamed with Kaysha Love to win silver at the test event.
Is Lindsey Vonn really back?
She is, although she crashed on Jan. 30 in the final downhill race before these Olympics. "My Olympic dream is not over," Vonn wrote on social media afterward.
Vonn is scheduled for a news conference on Tuesday afternoon here in Italy and could give clarity around her status for the Feb. 8 downhill race, the Feb. 10 team combined event, and the Feb. 12 super-G race. If healthy, she’d be a contender for multiple gold medals.
Up until the crash, it has been one of the most incredible comeback stories — ever. In any sport. Not only because Vonn is 41 and was retired for almost six years, but also because she’s skiing after having a partial knee replacement.
“I have nothing to prove,” Vonn said last fall. “I’m doing it because I love it.”
Vonn is one of the greatest skiers in history, the Olympic downhill champion in 2010 and No. 3 on the list of career World Cup victories. But a series of injuries over the course of her career took their toll, and she retired in February 2019.
Fast-forward to spring of 2024, when Vonn had a partial knee replacement.
Returning to ski racing wasn’t the goal. Vonn simply wanted to live a normal life and do the things she enjoyed — playing tennis, hiking, walking! — without debilitating pain. But as she recovered and found herself able to do things she hadn’t in years, Vonn wondered if ski racing was possible.
She resumed training and, in December 2024, skied in her first World Cup race in almost six years. Vonn had mixed results in her first season, but she finished by winning a silver medal in super-G at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.
With a full offseason to train and fine-tune her equipment, Vonn has simply been a marvel. She won the season’s first downhill — that was World Cup victory No. 83, for those counting — and has been on the podium or near it in every other race.
“All the people that didn’t believe in me, I have to thank them because it really gives me a lot of motivation," Vonn said after her win. "I’m surprised that people haven’t figured that out by now. Every time you talk bad about me, it just makes me stronger and better and more motivated."
Cortina has always been one of her favorite courses: She made her first World Cup podium there, and 12 of her 83 wins came there.
Athough she isn’t trying to prove anything to anyone, she is still Lindsey Vonn. She’s not interested in participation medals. She wants some real ones.
“I know what I'm capable of, so I have my own expectations,” Vonn said. “I'm sure the world has their own as well, but I don't think yours will be higher than mine.”
Why should I follow Jordan Stolz?
Because he’s the Michael Phelps of his generation.
Stolz has dominated speed skating the last three years, sweeping the 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-meter titles at the world championships in 2023 and 2024 and winning the overall season champion at all three distances last season. He’s unbeaten in the 1,000 and 1,500 meters this World Cup season, and has won five of the nine 500-meter races.
He put the mass start back in his international program after a two-year absence, and was on the podium in two of the first four World Cups.
That means Stolz will be a gold-medal favorite in each of his individual events in Milano Cortina. Should he win all four races, it would be the most golds for a U.S. Winter Olympian since Eric Heiden famously swept all five speed skating events at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.
Heiden is the only Winter Olympian to win five golds at a single Games. Only two, Norwegian biathlon great Ole Einar Bjorndalen (2002) and Soviet speed skater Lidiya Skoblikova (1964), have won four.
“There's a lot of confidence there. I had some really good (World Cup) races,” Stolz said after the Olympic trials. “Now that I'm actually planning a peak, I think it can get better. And even if it's the same, I think I still have really good chances at the Olympics.”
Who else will be the stars in Milano Cortina?
Mikaela Shiffrin and Chloe Kim will always command the spotlight.
Shiffrin is a two-time Olympic champion who has more World Cup victories than any other skier, male or female. She’ll be a favorite in slalom, where she won the first five races of the season, and team combined, and a medal contender in giant slalom.
Kim has won gold in the halfpipe at the last two Olympics, and, if healthy after two shoulder dislocations in recent weeks, she could make it three in a row.
Also keep an eye on Jessie Diggins, a medal threat in cross-country skiing; “Quad God” Ilia Malinin, whose quadruple jumps make him almost unbeatable in figure skating; and Mystique Ro, a two-time medalist at last year’s skeleton world championships. Don’t sleep on Campbell Wright and Deedra Irwin, who have the best chance of winning the United States’ first Olympic medal ever in biathlon.
Lastly, U.S. captain Hilary Knight has already said these Olympics, her fifth, will be her last, and she and the U.S. women’s hockey team would like nothing better than to go out on top. Though the Americans have not won Olympic gold since 2014, they have had the upper hand on archrival Canada lately. They’ve won two of the last three world championships, including an overtime thriller last spring, and walloped Canada 24-7 in the four Rivalry Series games in the fall.
Speaking of hockey, what about the NHL players?
For the first time since 2014, NHL players will take part in the Winter Games. Every team but host Italy has at least one NHL player on its roster, and the U.S., Canada and Sweden squads are comprised entirely of NHL players.
“We’ve got a really good group of young, hungry Americans that haven’t played in the Olympics before,” Jack Hughes said after the U.S. roster was announced. “We’re lucky the NHLers are back in the Olympics. Guys are pumped up.”
As are fans.
Since they began competing at the Nagano Games in 1998, NHL players have made the men’s Olympic tournament better and more exciting. But the NHL (stupidly) refused to allow its players to compete in 2018 — much to the unhappiness of the players.
The league initially planned to return for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, only for COVID to cause so many cancellations in the months leading up to the Games that the NHL said taking a three-week break would be at the expense of the regular season and playoffs.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has complained about the size and construction of the Milano Cortina rinks, but he recognizes the Olympics, and the league, both benefit from the NHL’s participation.
“I think it's going to be great," Bettman said in October. “Listen, there are lots of reasons that I'm never thrilled about taking a couple of week break in the season. Changes a lot of things.
"But on balance, I think it'll be worth it, A) for the exposure, B) for the fan engagement, but C) and most importantly, this is and has always been very important to our players. And that's why we're doing this."
What’s the status of the Russians?
This is not the start of a brain teaser, we promise.
Russia remains banned by the International Olympic Committee, though there will be some Russian athletes at the Milano Cortina Games. Russia is no longer banned by the International Paralympic Committee, but no Russian athletes are expected at the Milano Cortina Games.
Got that?
The IOC is maintaining the same position as it had for the Summer Games in Paris, allowing Russians and Belarussians to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” or AIN in the French translation. Those athletes cannot wear their country’s colors or participate in the opening ceremony, and they will hear a generic anthem if they win a gold medal.
As of Jan. 27, 20 athletes in eight sports — Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, short-track speedskating, speedskating and ski mountaineering — had been cleared to compete in Milano Cortina.
The IPC, on the other hand, lifted its ban of Russia and Belarus in September, clearing both countries to return to the Paralympics wearing their names and colors. But not all sport federations have lifted their bans, while others did not lift them in time for athletes to qualify for Milano Cortina. As a result, the IPC said In October that it didn’t expect any athletes from the two countries at the 2026 Paralympics.
Any new events?
Between wanting to appeal to people in the host country and trying to attract the attention of the kids, of course there are new events.
Some are relays or mixed-gender events or expansion of existing events. (Or, in the case of ski jumping, joining the 21st century). There is one new entirely new sport making its debut in 2026, however. Ski mountaineering. Or SkiMo.
Popular in Italy with elite athletes and weekend warriors alike, ski mountaineering is an endurance sport where athletes climb a hill and then, once at the top, ski down it. Lightweight skis with “skins” help with the climbs, and there is a section on the ascent that has to be navigated on foot.
There will be individual sprint races for both the men and women, as well as a mixed relay.
The other new events are dual moguls, which involves head-to-head runs; women’s doubles in luge; and mixed-team in skeleton. There’s also the large hill in women’s ski jumping, which strikes a blow for equality. Women’s ski jumping has only been in the Olympics since 2014. The women were limited to the normal hill in Sochi, Pyeongchang and Beijing while the men did both the normal and large hills. Now both genders will compete on the same hills. As they should.
How are IOC’s efforts at gender parity going?
The International Olympic Committee says Milano Cortina will be the most gender-balanced Winter Games yet, with women making up 47% of the almost 3,000 athletes. That’s up from the nearly 45% in Beijing.
Counting mixed-gender events, women will compete in 53.4% of the events in Milano Cortina, also a high for a Winter Games.
But there’s still work to be done. Remember how ski jumping added the large hill event for the women? It also added a super team event for men, so women still have one less event in ski jumping.
Will the stars come out like they did in Paris?
Mariah Carey is performing at the opening ceremony, so that’s a pretty good start.
Paris was the place to be in 2024, with celebrities like Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman and Zendaya showing up at the Olympics. You could have played a game of “Where’s Waldo?” with all the different events Tom Cruise took in.
Although we might not see quite as many A-listers, Milano is Italy’s fashion capital and Fashion Week starts two days after the closing ceremony. Don’t be surprised if celebrities come early to take in both events.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Your 2026 Winter Olympics guide, Team USA athletes to watch, more
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