2026 Winter Olympics

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XXV Olympic Winter Games
2026 Winter Olympics logo
Emblem of the 2026 Winter Olympics
Host cityMilan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Motto
  • Dream Together
  • (Italian: Sogniamo Insieme)
[citation needed]
Events114 in 8 sports
Opening6 February
Closing22 February
Stadium
Winter
Summer
2026 Winter Paralympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Milano Cortina 2026, are an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo beat another joint bid from Swedish cities StockholmÅre 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]

This will be the fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy (Cortina d'Ampezzo previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics), and the first hosted in Milan. It will be the first Olympic Games featuring two host cities in an official form and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 that the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different places.[note 1] It will mark the 20th anniversary of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the most recent Winter Olympics in Italy and the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the first Olympics in Italy.

Bidding[edit]

Host city selection[edit]

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]

Criteria[edit]

A firm criterion for the Winter Olympics is the availability of adequate alpine skiing venues, which narrows down potential locations significantly. The men's downhill requires a minimum vertical drop of 800 metres (2,625 feet), with a course length of around 3 kilometres (1.9 miles).[5] Bormio and Cortina are notable regular stops on the World Cup circuit for men's and women's downhills, respectively.

For the 2026 Winter Olympics, the IOC allowed a longer distance between events so that alpine skiing can be held in a mountain area, and indoor sports such as ice hockey and figure skating can be held in a large city more than 160 km (100 mi) away, where such arenas are already available or have greater usage after the games.

A certain spectator capacity is required, most often 10,000, but varies according to the particular sport. Furthermore, certain VIP areas are required at every venue.

National Hockey League (NHL) commissioner Gary Bettman stated in 2017 that NHL players were unlikely to be included if the Winter Games was held outside of North America.[6] However, on 6 July 2020, the league and its players' union announced a tentative agreement to extend their Collective Bargaining Agreement,[7] which included provisions for participating in the 2022 and 2026 Olympics.[8]

Venues[edit]

Milan Cluster[edit]

Assago stand-alone venue[edit]

Valtellina Cluster[edit]

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cluster[edit]

Val di Fiemme Cluster[edit]

Verona[edit]

Transport[edit]

Budget[edit]

Sports[edit]

  1. Biathlon
  2. Bobsleigh
  3. Curling
  4. Ice hockey
  5. Luge
  6. Skating
  7. Skiing
  8. Ski mountaineering

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

On June 18, 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 July 20.[9]

Participating National Olympic Committees[edit]

Marketing[edit]

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] It is reportedly the first time that the emblem of an Olympic Games was decided by the public.

The vote closed on 25 March 2021, with the winning emblem, the "Futura" emblem, announced on 30 March 2021.[12][13]

Broadcasting rights[edit]

In the United States, these Games will once again be broadcast by NBCUniversal properties, as part of its US$7.75 billion contract[20] to air the Olympics through 2032.[21] The 2026 edition of the Super Bowl—championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and historically the most-watched television broadcast in the United States annually—is tentatively scheduled for the second consecutive time to be held during an ongoing Winter Olympics. On 18 March 2021 the NFL Renewed it’s rights in which, alongside Fox, NBC and ESPN/ABC, alternate airing the Super Bowl on a four-year rotation) 2026's Super Bowl LX. Holding rights to both events will prevent them from competing for viewership and advertising sales, and also allow NBC to create synergies and advertising packages for them (as it did during Super Bowl LVI, which will be helding during the second time during the 2022 Winter Olympics and also televised by NBC).[22][23] While there is an established practice of airing premieres or special episodes of entertainment programs after the Super Bowl to take advantage of its large audience, NBC may decide to air its Day 3 programming daytime in the morning prior to the Super Bowl and its primetime block after the game like in 2022.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Some events in previous Olympic Games were held in cities outside of the official hosts, usually for logistical reasons. These events were:

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Lausanne To Host Vote For Winning 2026 Winter Olympic Bid Instead of Milan After Italy Enters Race". GamesBids. 20 September 2018.
  2. ^ "IOC To Move Up 2026 Olympic Bid Vote Three Months, Now June 2019". GamesBids. 9 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Winter Olympics: Italy's Milan-Cortina bid chosen as host for the 2026 Games". BBC. 24 June 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Milan-Cortina awarded the Olympic Winter Games 2026". IOC. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  5. ^ News, Postmedia (13 December 2010). "It's looking downhill for Quebec's Olympic bid". National Post (Canada). Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Gary Bettman says it's 'hard to envision' the NHL ever returning to the Olympics". CBS Sports. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  7. ^ Gulitti, Tom. "NHL, NHLPA agree to four-year CBA extension, protocols for Phases 3, 4". NHL.com. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  8. ^ Seravalli, Frank (6 July 2020). "NHL, NHLPA on verge of labour peace; plan to resume games Aug. 1". tsn.ca. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  9. ^ Sharma, Hritika. "Ski mountaineering added to 2026 Winter Olympic program". Infobae. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  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. 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. 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. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  14. ^ "IOC reaches agreement for broadcast rights in Brazil with Grupo Globo through to 2032". International Olympic Committee. 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  15. ^ "IOC awards 2026–2032 broadcast rights in China". International Olympic Committee. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  16. ^ "IOC awards broadcast rights to the Japan Consortium through to 2032". IOC. Olympic.org. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  17. ^ Lloyd, Owen (5 December 2021). "Macau's TDM to broadcast Milan Cortina 2026 after agreement with Chinese Media Group". inside the games. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  18. ^ a b "IOC awards 2026–2032 Olympic Games broadcast rights in Korea to JTBC". International Olympic Committee. Olympic.org. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  19. ^ "IOC awards Olympic Games broadcast rights to NBCUniversal through to 2032". International Olympic Committee. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  20. ^ "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.
  21. ^ "Olympics on NBC through 2032". USA Today. Gannett Company. 7 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  22. ^ "CBS, NBC in 'Freaky Friday' Super Bowl swap". adage.com. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  23. ^ Steinberg, Brian (13 March 2019). "CBS, NBC to Swap Super Bowl Broadcasts". Variety. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.

External links[edit]

Winter Olympics
Preceded by XXV Olympic Winter Games
MilanCortina d'Ampezzo

2026
Succeeded by