Winter Games Countdown Is On

Games start in

This is the first Winter Olympics in Europe in 20 years, and the first-ever officially co-hosted edition. Consider it a sporting road trip across northern Italy, except instead of asking, “are we there yet?” everyone’s wondering, “who packed the ski wax?”

Here’s where the Games will play out:

• Milan (Lombardy): Opening Ceremony at San Siro Stadium (usually filled with football chants, now it’s Olympic anthems). Figure skating and short-track skating at the Mediolanum Forum, plus ice hockey at the brand-new Santa Giulia Arena.
• Cortina d’Ampezzo (Veneto): Host of the 1956 Games, back when athletes raced in wool sweaters and wooden skis. This time, it’s alpine skiing, bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge. Basically, all the sports where gravity does most of the work.
• Bormio & Livigno (Lombardy): Bormio for men’s alpine skiing, Livigno for freestyle mayhem: moguls, aerials, and the occasional acrobatic crash.
• Anterselva (South Tyrol): Biathlon central, where the challenge is skiing fast with a rifle on your back while pretending you’re not out of breath.
• Predazzo & Tesero (Trentino): Ski jumping and cross-country, for athletes who enjoy both flying and suffering.
• Verona: Closing Ceremony inside the ancient Roman Verona Arena. Back in the day, it hosted gladiators; this time, it’s medalists, though some ice hockey brawls could look suspiciously similar.

Across 116 events in 16 sports, expect the classics: alpine skiing, hockey, figure skating, ski jumping, plus the shiny new addition of ski mountaineering, a sport that basically says: “why ski downhill when you can climb the whole mountain first?”

• And of course, no Winter Olympics build-up is complete without remembering some past Games’ “quirks”:
• Whistler 2010 (Vancouver): Famous not for blizzards but for the lack of them. Snow had to be helicoptered in and trucked down from higher altitudes. It was the only Olympics where the ski slopes had more hay bales and tarps than powder. Locals joked that the real race was whether the snow would arrive before the athletes did.
• Calgary 1988: Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards finished last in ski jumping, proving Olympic legends are sometimes written in bravery, not medals.
• Also in ’88: The Jamaican bobsleigh team crashed their sled but slid into history (and a Disney movie).
• Salt Lake City 2002: Figure skating had a full-blown judging scandal, eventually awarding two gold medals, proof that even the Olympics needs customer service.
• And way back in 1960: Skaters had to draw perfect circles on ice (“school figures”). Nothing like doodling with your blades in front of millions.

Meanwhile, athletes are fighting for qualification spots this winter, while Team USA’s “ICE House” will open in Milan, a hospitality hub for skaters, hockey players, speed skaters, and their families. Think of it as an Olympic clubhouse where the coffee is strong and the Wi-Fi password is probably SkateFast123.

Northern Italy is gearing up to host what promises to be a Games full of triumphs, drama, and (if history repeats itself) maybe even a snow delivery service or two.

Which Brits could medal in the winter games

Some top British medal prospects for the upcoming Winter Games in Milano Cortina 2026 include world champions and top-ranked athletes in skeleton, freestyle skiing, curling, and snowboarding.

Based on recent world championship results and top performances, here are some of Team GB’s strongest medal contenders:

Skeleton

• Matt Weston: A two-time men’s skeleton World Champion (2023, 2025), he is a top contender for the Olympic podium.
• Marcus Wyatt: Weston’s training partner and rival, Wyatt won silver behind Weston at the 2025 World Championships, pushing both of them to a high level.
• Tabitha Stoecker: A partner in the mixed-team skeleton event, which will make its Olympic debut in 2026, Stoecker has multiple world silver medals in the discipline.

Freestyle Skiing

• Zoe Atkin: In March 2025, she became the women’s freeski halfpipe World Champion. After finishing ninth in Beijing 2022, her trajectory points toward an Olympic podium finish.
• Kirsty Muir: The freestyle skier is a medal hope in slopestyle and big air. After recovering from a season-ending injury in December 2024, she returned to form with a sixth-place finish at the 2025 World Championships.

Snowboarding

• Mia Brookes: At 17 years old, Brookes is a record-breaker who won the snowboard slopestyle World Championship in 2023. She has medal potential in both slopestyle and big air.
• Charlotte Bankes: The snowboard cross athlete, who won the World Championship in 2021, is consistently one of the world’s best. She had a strong season in 2025 with multiple World Cup victories.

Curling

• Team Mouat (Men’s): The team of Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan are the 2025 World Champions. They aim to upgrade their Beijing 2022 silver medal to gold.
• Women’s Team: The new team, skipped by Rebecca Morrison and including Jennifer Dodds, secured Great Britain’s Olympic quota spot in 2025 and will aim to defend the gold medal won in Beijing 2022.

Figure Skating

• Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson: The ice dance pair are Britain’s best in decades, having won bronze at the 2025 World Championships. The multiple European medalists are considered podium contenders.

Bobsleigh

• Team Brad Hall: The four-man team led by Brad Hall won bronze at the 2025 World Championships. They also claimed multiple World Cup medals in the 2024–25 season, making them a strong medal threat.