Team GB hopefuls, new sports and Mariah Carey - all you need to know about the 2026 Winter Olympics

The stage has been set for Italy's Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo as the two host cities gear up for the 25th Winter Olympics. 

The games will see around 3,000 athletes from 90 nations compete in events on snow and ice from Friday 6 February to Sunday 22 February, with some preliminary action starting on Wednesday 4 February.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of the games.

Where will events take place?

A total of 116 events in eight sports are scheduled to take place across 19 days of competition.

15 venues across the north and north-east of Italy will host the events, with most indoor sports, such as the skating and ice hockey, taking place in Milan, Italy's fashionable financial hub.

Whereas the ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, which last hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956, will be home to the snow and sliding events such as curling.

Towns and areas in the Valtellina region will also play a key role in the games, hosting events from freestyle skiing, snowboarding and alpine skiing.

Here is a full list of the venues and territories where events are scheduled to take place:

Antholz/Anterselva
• Anterselva Biathlon Arena: Biathlon

Bormio
• Stelvio Ski Centre: Alpine skiing, ski mountaineering

Cortina d'Ampezzo
• Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium: Curling
• Cortina Sliding Centre: Bobsleigh, luge, skeleton
• Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre: Alpine skiing

Livigno
• Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park: Freestyle skiing
• Livigno Snow Park: Freestyle skiing, snowboard

Milan
• Milano Ice Skating Arena: Figure skating, short track speed skating
• Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium: Opening Ceremony
• Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena: Ice hockey
• Milano Speed Skating Stadium: Speed skating
• Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena: Ice hockey

Predazzo
• Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium: Ski jumping, Nordic combined

Tesero
• Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium: Cross-country skiing, Nordic combined

What about the opening and closing ceremonies?

The opening ceremony on 6 February will officially kick the games off.

It will take place at San Siro Stadium - home of AC Milan and Inter Milan - with performances from American singer Mariah Carey and famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

However, the first action begins on 4 February with the mixed doubles curling competition, which Team GB will be part of. The day after, on 5 February, events in ice hockey and snowboarding will also get under way.

The closing ceremony will take place on 22 February at the Verona Arena in Verona.

Are there any new sports this year?

This year's games will contain several firsts, most notably the new sport of ski mountaineering.

Also known as skimo, the discipline involves athletes skinning (climbing up a mountain with skis that have adhesive fabric on the bottom and poles), climbing on foot and skiing downhill.

The sport has uphill, downhill and transition phases where the athlete adjusts their equipment according to the needs of the terrain.

Most importantly, it is all against the clock. At this year's games, there will be sprint races for men and women, and a mixed relay.

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Although there's only one new sport, this year eight new events will debut across various disciplines.

Mixed team skeleton, comprising one male and one female athlete from each nation, will feature for the first time, as well as women's doubles in the luge, a move that ensures women have the same medal opportunities as men in the sport.

Other new events include women's large hill in ski jumping, men's and women's dual moguls in freestyle skiing and team combined in alpine skiing.

Almost 1.2 million tickets have been sold to the ice hockey events so far. It is the first time since 2014 that players from the professional North American National Hockey League (NHL) will be able to play at the games.

Who are Team GB's hopefuls?

Team GB is sending 53 athletes to complete in Milan Cortina.

The team is no doubt hunting for medals, aiming to beat Britain's best-ever haul of five, achieved in Sochi in 2014 and again in Pyeonchang in 2018.

Matt Weston, the two-time world champion in skeleton and Crystal Globe winner for the last three seasons (that's snowsport's equivalent of the Champions League) told Sky News sports presenter Jacquie Beltrao he's about as sure "a sure thing" that winter sports gets.

His teammate, Marcus Wyatt, is third in the world rankings, and also a strong contender.

Britain's most successful winter sport at the Olympics has been curling, with five medals from the last six games.

Bruce Mouat captains the men's side again, and also tops the standings in the mixed doubles event alongside his long-term playing partner and Beijing gold medallist, Jennifer Dodds.

Other potential medallists include the ice dance partnership of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson. The world and European bronze medallists in ice dance are hoping to land Britain's first ice skating medal since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean 42 years ago.

Zoe Atkin is the reigning world champion in women's freestyle skiing, having also claimed a Winter X Games Aspen top spot two weeks before the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Kirsty Muir should also be in the mix in big air and slopestyle skiing, while snowboarder Mia Brookes had seven podium finishes in 2025.

Meet the mascots

Like the Summer Olympic Games, the tournament is represented by a mascot, and for Milano Cortina, it is Milo and Tina, brown and white stoats.

The light-coloured stoat Tina represents the Olympic Winter Games, while her darker-furred, younger brother Milo is the face of the Paralympic Winter Games.

They are named after the two host cities, and were designed by students at the Istituto Comprensivo of Taverna, and voted on by a public poll.

Why are ICE agents going to the games?

Before any competition has begun, hundreds took to the streets in Milan at the end of January to protest against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the games.

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The US state department said several federal agencies, including ICE, would be deployed to help protect visiting Americans, as they have in previous Olympics, but this caused outrage in Italy, as it comes after the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal agents during protests against ICE operations in Minnesota.

The ICE agents who will be deployed in Milan are not from the same unit as the agents working in Minnesota and other US cities.

Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit focusing on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers overseas to events like the Olympics to assist with security.

(c) Sky News 2026: Team GB hopefuls, new sports and Mariah Carey - all you need to know about the 2026 Winter Ol