Milano Cortina 2026 opens Feb 6 with split infrastructure across four Italian tech zones

Italy's 2026 Winter Olympics begins February 6 with preliminaries in curling, ice hockey, and freestyle skiing, though the opening ceremony's February 6 date creates an unusual gap with some media reporting events starting February 4. This marks Italy's third Winter Olympics (after 1956 Cortina, 2006 Turin), with 116 medal events across 16 disciplines running through February 22.

Distributed infrastructure across four zones

The Games split operations across Milan (ice events, ceremonies), Valtellina (freestyle skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering), Cortina (sliding sports, women's alpine), and Val di Fiemme (ski jumping, cross-country). Milan's San Siro Stadium hosts the opening ceremony under a "Harmony" theme—notable timing given the stadium's expected demolition.

For the first time, two Olympic flames will burn simultaneously: one at Milan's Arco della Pace, another in Cortina's town center. The distributed model requires coordinated broadcasting infrastructure across Lombardy and Northeast Italy.

New venues, new requirements

Cortina Sliding Centre, a 5,500-capacity facility for bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton, represents one of the new builds still completing ahead of opening day. The venue joins existing sites like Anterselva Biathlon Arena (19,000 capacity) and Verona Olympic Arena (15,000 capacity, closing ceremony).

Accessibility features prominently: new podiums accommodate up to 10 athletes with ramps and curbs designed for Paralympic needs. Milo, the darker-haired stoat mascot for the Paralympic Games, was designed without a leg and uses his tail for movement.

What to watch

This is the IOC's first Games under president Kirsty Coventry, with emphasis on tech-enabled fan engagement. The event introduces ski mountaineering as a new discipline. February 10 features medal events across eight disciplines—the first major test of the distributed venue model.

Medals designed with Italy's Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato feature geometric simplicity with a central line representing "continuous change." The real test: whether the distributed infrastructure delivers on simultaneous ceremonies without technical failures.