The new ice hockey arena in Milan and the ice rink in Cortina were completed just in time for the 25th Winter Olympics, allowing the Games to begin as planned. Cortina d’Ampezzo returns as a host town for the first time since it staged the entire Games in 1956.
Key dates and venues
The opening ceremony is scheduled for February 6 at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium (San Siro) in Milan, which seats about 75,000. Competition begins two days earlier, on February 4, with curling events. The Games will conclude on February 22 with a closing ceremony at the Verona Arena, a historic amphitheater east of Milan that holds around 12,000 spectators.
Around 2,900 athletes from more than 90 countries are expected to compete for 116 sets of medals. Women make up roughly 47% of competitors. Germany is sending a record-size team of 188 athletes.
New sport and event locations
Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut. Events use looped courses where athletes climb with skins on their skis, then remove them to descend. Events are spread across northern Italy: ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating and short track are in Milan; women’s alpine skiing, luge, bobsleigh, skeleton and curling are in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Other competition sites include Antholz (biathlon), Livigno (freestyle skiing and snowboarding), and Bormio and Val di Fiemme (men’s alpine skiing and ski mountaineering). Distances between venues are substantial—Milan to Antholz is roughly 350 km (about 217 miles), so logistics matter.
Russian and Belarusian athletes
As at the 2024 Paris Games, athletes from Russia and Belarus may only compete as individually cleared neutrals. Eligibility requires demonstrable separation from military or security services, no public support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and sporting qualification. A three-member IOC review panel grants final clearance. As of January 29, 2026, the IOC expected about 13 Russian and seven Belarusian winter athletes to take part. In December, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned bans that had kept neutral Russian and Belarusian skiers out of Olympic qualification. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, 216 Russian athletes competed under a neutral designation following state-sponsored doping findings.
Security
Host-country authorities are responsible for security, coordinating with participating delegations. Reports indicate about 6,000 police and security personnel will be deployed across Milan-Cortina. The United States is sending Homeland Security Investigations officers in an advisory and intelligence role to support U.S. guests; they will not conduct patrols or law-enforcement duties. Announcements about any ICE presence prompted attention and some tensions in Italy.
Doping controls
The International Testing Authority (ITA) has been tasked by the IOC to run most doping tests, following the model used in Beijing 2022. Pre-Games testing started in October, and organizers plan roughly 3,000 tests during the Olympics. For the first time, airport baggage checks are intended to intercept suspicious substances. Several international federations—covering skiing, biathlon, ice hockey and curling—are conducting their own controls rather than routing all testing through the ITA. Urine and blood samples may be stored for up to ten years for later re-analysis as methods improve. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will have an on-site office to expedite resolution of doping disputes.
Tickets, atmosphere and finances
By early November 2025, organizers reported that more than half of tickets had been sold. Ticket prices range from about €30 to €2,900 for premium seats at the Verona closing ceremony. Hospitality packages for high-demand events such as alpine skiing can run into the thousands—some packages are priced around €3,500 and include extras like brunch and premium access. Organizers estimate the combined budget for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milan and Cortina at roughly €1.6 billion. For context, official costs for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games were cited at about €3.3 billion, while an Oxford University study estimated the true cost closer to €7 billion.
Outlook
The Games’ success will hinge on smooth transportation and venue logistics, effective security and crowd management, the atmosphere at competitions, and whether final costs stay within budget. If operations run as planned, Milan-Cortina 2026 aims to deliver a compact, multi-venue Winter Olympics across northern Italy.