2026 Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics (Italian: 2026 Olimpiadi invernali), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026 (Ladin: Milano-Anpezo 2026 or Milano-Ampëz 2026), is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026. The event will have the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo as main host cities. The joint bid from the two cities beat another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm–Åre by 47–34 votes to be elected host cities at the 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 June 2019.[1][2][3]

"2026 Olympics" and "Milano Cortina 2026" redirect here. For the Winter Paralympics, see 2026 Winter Paralympics. For the Summer Youth Olympics in Dakar, Senegal, see 2026 Summer Youth Olympics.

XXV Olympic Winter Games
2026 Winter Olympics logo
Emblem of the 2026 Winter Olympics
Host cityMilan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
MottoSognando insieme (English: Dreaming together)
Events116 in 8 sports
Opening6 February 2026
Closing22 February 2026
StadiumSan Siro (Opening ceremony)
Verona Arena (Closing ceremony)
Winter
Summer
2026 Winter Paralympics
Olympic rings
Part of a series on
2026 Winter Olympics
  • Bid process (bid details)
  • Development (venues, torch relay)
  • Marketing (mascots)
  • Broadcasters
  • Opening ceremony (flag bearers)
  • Chronological summary
  • Medal table (medallists)
  • Controversies
  • World and Olympic records
  • Closing ceremony (flag bearers)
  • Paralympics

This will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy - which previously hosted in 2006 in Turin - the second for Cortina d'Ampezzo (previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics), and the first hosted in Milan. It will be the first Olympic Games featuring multiple host cities in an official form and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 at which the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues.Despite having two main poles (Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo) events will take place in seven other cities in the north-northeast of Italy.The games will mark the 20th anniversary of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the most recent Olympics in Italy, and the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the first Olympics held in Italy. It will be also the last of the two consecutive Olympics to be held in Europe with France hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, because the United States will be hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

Bidding process
Main article: Bids for the 2026 Winter Olympics

Host city selection

Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were elected as the host cities on 24 June 2019 at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne, Switzerland. The three Italian IOC members, Franco Carraro, Ivo Ferriani and Giovanni Malagò, and two Swedish IOC members, Gunilla Lindberg and Stefan Holm, were ineligible to vote in this host city election under the rules of the Olympic Charter.

2026 Winter Olympics bidding results[4]
City Nation Votes
Milan–Cortina d'Ampezzo  Italy 47
Stockholm–Åre  Sweden 34
One abstention[4]

Venues
Locations of the venues in Northern Italy. The host cities are circled in blue.

Milan Cluster
San Siro – Opening ceremonies

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cluster

Valtellina Cluster
  • Pista Stelvio, Bormio – alpine skiing & ski mountaineering.
  • Mottolino/Sitas-Tagliede/Carosello 3000, Livigno – snowboarding, freestyle skiing

Val di Fiemme Cluster

Verona

Speed Skating site

To be confirmed; 2 options on the table: construction of a new temporary ice rink in the pavilions of Fiera Milano Rho (this option would require significant structural works on 2 of the pavilions) or re-use of the Oval Lingotto Olympic Arena in the city of Turin (no structural works needed). The Oval Lingotto already hosted the speed skating events during the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In April 2023, it was confirmed that the option of the temporary ice rink in Fiera Milano Rho would require at least 30 million euros to be developed. On the contrary, the option of the Oval Lingotto would require less than 10 million euros and just one year of preparation work. Despite being the best solution on economic and practical levels, the option of the Oval Lingotto has seen political opposition from those involved in the organization of the Games, specifically from the mayor of Milan and from the presidents of Lombardy and Veneto regions. The Fiera Milano Rho is likely to be selected as the host venue of the speed skating events.[5] The selection of Fiera MIlano Rho as the speed skating venue was confirmed on 19 April 2023.[6][7]

Sports

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each discipline.

On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee issued a proposal for a new winter sport, ski mountaineering, for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The proposal was approved during the IOC's session in Tokyo on 20 July.[8]

On 24 June 2022, the IOC announced the final version of the program for this edition. Present in the last two editions of the Games, the mixed team event of alpine skiing was dropped from the program. This removal was done for logistical reasons, as men and women will be competing at different resorts that are very far apart. The IOC together with the FIS decided to provisionally place the combined event in both sexes in the same sport, given the low technical level and the high number of accidents during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. However, along with the three ski mountaineering events, five new events have been added to the Olympic program in four sports that were already on the program. In this way, a total of 116 events in eight sports were confirmed.[9]

  • Freestyle skiing: Men's and women's dual moguls
  • Luge: Women's doubles. Open doubles switched to being exclusive to men only.
  • Ski jumping: Women's large hill individual
  • Ski mountaineering: Men's and Women's sprint, mixed relay
  • Skeleton: Mixed team

Marketing

The official emblem for the games was decided through a global online vote that opened on 6 March 2021. The two candidate emblems were unveiled at the Sanremo Music Festival 2021 by former Italian Olympic gold medallists Federica Pellegrini and Alberto Tomba and are nicknamed "Dado" and "Futura".[10] They were both designed by Landor Associates.[11] The vote closed on 25 March 2021, with the winning emblem, the "Futura" emblem, announced on 30 March 2021.[12][13]

During the Sanremo Music Festival 2022, two candidates for the official anthem of the Games were presented, with a vote opening afterward: on 7 March 2022, "Fino all'alba" ("Until the dawn")—composed by the youth music group La Cittadina of the San Pietro Martire in Seveso, and performed during Sanremo by Arisa—was announced as the winner.[14]

Broadcasting rights

On 16 January 2023, the IOC announced that it had renewed its European broadcast rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports to last from 2026 through 2032. The contract covers pay television and streaming rights to the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics on Eurosport and Discovery+ in 49 European territories.[56] Unlike the previous contract, where corporate precursor Discovery, Inc. was responsible for sub-licensing them to broadcasters in each country,[57][58] free-to-air rights packages were concurrently awarded to the European Broadcasting Union and its members, covering at least 100 hours of content during each Winter Olympics.[56]

In the United States, these Games will once again be broadcast by NBCUniversal properties, as part of its US$7.75 billion contract[59] to air the Olympics through 2032.[60] In a scenario now guaranteed under the National Football League's new media rights agreements that begin in 2023, NBC will serve as broadcaster of the Super Bowl (which is now rotated among all four of the United States' major commercial FTA networks) during Winter Olympic years that fall under the contract.[61][62]

See also

Notes

    References
    1. "Lausanne To Host Vote For Winning 2026 Winter Olympic Bid Instead of Milan After Italy Enters Race". GamesBids. 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 24 April 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
    2. "IOC To Move Up 2026 Olympic Bid Vote Three Months, Now June 2019". GamesBids. 9 October 2018. Archived from the original on 24 April 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
    3. "Winter Olympics: Italy's Milan-Cortina bid chosen as host for the 2026 Games". BBC. 24 June 2019. Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
    4. "Milan-Cortina awarded the Olympic Winter Games 2026". IOC. 24 June 2019. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
    5. "Bach to meet Italian PM as Milan Cortina 2026 speed skating venue due to be ratified".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
    6. Rowbottom, MIke (19 April 2023). "Milan The Unanimous Choice for Speed Skating at 2026 Winter Olympics". Inside the Games. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
    7. Ridley, Bob (19 April 2023). "Fiera Milano Rho To Be New Home for Speed Skating at 2026 Winter Olympics". The Stadium Business. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
    8. Sharma, Hritika. "Ski mountaineering added to 2026 Winter Olympic program". Infobae. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
    9. "Milano Cortina 2026 set to become the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
    10. "Milano Cortina 2026 Launch Online Vote to Decide Emblem". International Olympic Committee. 9 March 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
    11. "Dal festival di Sanremo Pellegrini e Tomba lanciano 'Dado' o 'Futura', loghi di Milano-Cortina 2026". la Repubblica (in Italian). 6 March 2021. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
    12. Primavera, Erika (7 March 2021). "Olimpiadi 2026, 'Dado' o 'Futura': ecco il loghi per Milano Cortina" (in Italian). Rome. DIRE. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
    13. "Milano Cortina 2026, i nuovi simboli. E' 'Futura' il logo scelto, bianco per le olimpiadi, colorato per le paralimpiadi – Sport". Agenzia ANSA (in Italian). 30 March 2021. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
    14. Bila, Leticia (7 March 2022). "Milan Cortina 2026 unveils official song after earning 72 per cent of vote". InsideTheGames.biz. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
    15. "EBU siguron të drejtat TV të olimpiadave" (in Albanian). RTSH. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
    16. Brunsdon, Simon (8 February 2023). "Nine announces Olympic broadcast rights for five Games events". Nine.com.au. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
    17. "IOC awards Nine exclusive rights in Australia for 2024-2032 Olympic Games". International Olympic Committee. 8 February 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
    18. "ORF sichert sich Rechte bis 2032". Sport ORF (in German). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    19. "La RTBF diffusera les Jeux OIympiques 2026, 2028, 2030 et 2032". RTBF (in French). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    20. "VRT en Sporza verwerven uitzendrechten voor Olympische Spelen 2026 - 2032". VRT (in Dutch). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    21. "IOC reaches agreement for broadcast rights in Brazil with Grupo Globo through to 2032". International Olympic Committee. 10 December 2015. Archived from the original on 13 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
    22. "Българската национална телевизия придоби правата за излъчване на Олимпийските игри до 2032 г" (in Bulgarian). BNT. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    23. "CBC to remain Canada's home for Olympic coverage through 2032". CBC. Cbc.ca. 6 February 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
    24. "IOC awards 2026–2032 broadcast rights in China". International Olympic Committee. 9 September 2021. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
    25. "HRT osigurao prava prijenosa s olimpijskih igara do 2032" (in Croatian). HRT. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    26. "Olympijské hry zůstanou v České televizi až do roku 2032". České televize (in Czech). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    27. "TV 2 forlænger OL-rettigheder frem til 2032". TV 2 (in Danish). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    28. "IOC awards exclusive 2026-2032 Olympic Games media rights in Europe to European Broadcasting Union and Warner Bros. Discovery". IOC. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    29. "Eesti Rahvusringhääling omandas olümpiamängude näitamisõigused". ERR (in Estonian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    30. "Olympialaiset näkyvät Ylen kanavilla vuoteen 2032 asti". Yle (in Finnish). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    31. "Jeux olympiques. France Télévisions et Warner Bros Discovery diffuseront les Jeux jusqu'en 2032". ouest france (in French). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    32. "Olympische Spiele 2026 bis 2032 bei ARD/ZDF". ZDF (in German). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    33. "Οι Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες «κλείδωσαν» στην ΕΡΤ έως το 2032" (in Greek). ERT News. 21 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
    34. "Újabb 8 évre a közmédia kapta az olimpiai játékok közvetítési jogait". VG (in Hungarian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    35. "Ólympíuleikar á RÚV til 2032" (in Icelandic). RÚV. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    36. "RTÉ Sport secures Olympics rights for next decade". RTÉ. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    37. "ערוץ הספורט ימשיך לשדר את המשחקים האולימפיים לפחות עד 2032". 8 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
    38. "Le Olimpiadi fino al 2032 sulla Rai, insieme a Ebu e Discovery". Rai News (in Italian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    39. "IOC awards broadcast rights to the Japan Consortium through to 2032". IOC. Olympic.org. 14 November 2019. Archived from the original on 14 November 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
    40. "Latvijas Televīzija arī turpmāk pārraidīs olimpiskās spēles – tiesības iegūtas līdz 2032. gadam". LTV.lv (in Latvian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    41. "Olimpinės žaidynės grįžta į LRT: nuo 2026 metų transliuosime 4 žaidynes". LRT (in Lithuanian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    42. Lloyd, Owen (5 December 2021). "Macau's TDM to broadcast Milan Cortina 2026 after agreement with Chinese Media Group". inside the games. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
    43. "RTCG kao član EBU dobila ekskluzivno pravo na prenos olimpijskih igara" (in Montenegrin). RTCG. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    44. "Olympische Spelen blijven tot 2032 bij de NOS te zien". NOS (in Dutch). January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    45. "IOC awards 2026–2032 Olympic Games broadcast rights in Korea to JTBC". International Olympic Committee. Olympic.org. 4 June 2019. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
    46. "OL tilbake på NRK fra 2026". NRK (in Norwegian). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    47. "Pięć kolejnych igrzysk olimpijskich na antenach Telewizji Polskiej!". TVP Sport (in Polish). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    48. "Verejnoprávna televízia si udrží olympijské hry minimálne do roku 2032" (in Slovak). 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    49. "RTV Slovenija pridobila medijske pravice za olimpijske igre do leta 2032" (in Slovenian). RTVSLO. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    50. "El COI otorga derechos exclusivos de medios/emisión en Europa para los JJ.OO. de 2026-2032 a la UER y Warner Bros". RTVE (in Spanish). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    51. "Klart: SVT köper tillbaka OS-rättigheterna". SVT Sport (in Swedish). 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    52. "SRG-Sender übertragen alle Olympischen Spiele bis 2032". SRF (in German). 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    53. "Суспільне Мовлення отримає права на трансляцію чотирьох Олімпійських ігор з 2026 року" (in Ukrainian). Suspilne. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
    54. "The Olympic Games to remain on the BBC for the next decade". BBC. 16 January 2023. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
    55. "IOC awards Olympic Games broadcast rights to NBCUniversal through to 2032". International Olympic Committee. 7 May 2014. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
    56. Roxborough, Scott (16 January 2023). "Warner Bros. Discovery, European Broadcasting Union Secure Olympics Rights in Europe Through 2032". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
    57. Ourand, John (29 June 2015). "Discovery Lands European Olympic Rights Through '24". sportsbusinessdaily.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
    58. "BBC dealt another blow after losing control of TV rights for Olympics". The Guardian. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
    59. "Fewer Russians Could Be a Windfall for U.S. Olympic Business". The New York Times. 7 December 2017. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
    60. "Olympics on NBC through 2032". USA Today. Gannett Company. 7 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
    61. Gordon, Grant (18 March 2021). "NFL announces new broadcast deals running through 2033 season". NFL.com. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
    62. Reedy, Joe (18 March 2021). "Super Bowl/Olympics Sunday about to become routine for NBC". ABC News. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.