on the ice ahead of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. | Photo from @teamusa
on Instagram
Feb. 4, 2026 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
The 2026 Winter Olympics start this Friday in Milan, Italy when the opening ceremony takes place at 11:30 a.m. PST. The ceremony will be headlined with a performance from Mariah Carey and will be focused around a theme of “armonia,” which is the Italian word for harmony. The Games will last for 16 days before concluding Feb. 22. Interestingly enough, this will be the first time there have been two different official host cities at one time with Milan and Cortina, Italy, sharing the host duties. The two cities are about a four-to-five hour drive from each other, making it a particularly intriguing decision. The plan is for Milan, a more modern and large city, to host events like figure skating and hockey, while Cortina, with its mountainous backdrop, will be hosting events such as alpine skiing. For the first time, the Games will also include ski mountaineering. For those unfamiliar, ski mountaineering is a sport in which athletes race uphill in ski gear through different stages. Through the first stage, athletes are required to carry their skis on foot, in the second stage they climb with skis and in the third stage they descend down the hill with their skis to the finish line. There will also be a ski mountaineering mixed relay. Other new events being added to the Games this year include mixed-team skeleton, a type of bobsledding; women’s double luge; men’s and women’s freestyle skiing dual moguls; women’s large hill ski jumping; and men’s and women’s combined team alpine skiing.
The conversation in the lead-up to Milano Cortina 2026 for Team USA is currently being dominated by legendary alpine skier Lindsey Vonn. Vonn has two bronze medals and at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, became the first, and to this point only, American woman to win gold in downhill skiing. At age 36, she retired due to an extensive list of injuries but has since decided to return. Unfortunately, Jan. 30 she injured her knee during her final race before the Olympics and while it was initially unclear what her status would be for the Games, Vonn announced on social media that she would participate. “After extensive consultations with doctors, intense therapy, physical tests as well as skiing today, I have determined I am capable of competing in the Olympic Downhill on Sunday. Of course I will still need to do one training run, as is required to race on Sunday, but… I am confident in my body’s ability to perform,” Vonn wrote Feb. 3.
These Olympics will also mark the first under new International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry. Coventry, who represented Zimbabwe, has two Olympic gold medals in the 200 meter backstroke swim, two silver medals in 100 meter backstroke, a silver in 400 meter medley and bronze in 200 meter medley. She was also a national champion swimmer at the collegiate level with Auburn. She was elected IOC president in 2025 after Thomas Bach stepped down, making her the first woman to ever hold the role. In anticipation for her first Games as president, Coventry said, “I’m somewhat calm but I’m sure that could potentially change.” She then continued by saying, “We’ve done everything we can to set these Games up for success. We now have to release it and let it go.”
Contact the author at howlsports@mail.wou.edu
