With the 2026 Winter Olympics set to begin next week, we have an answer to all of your questions about the who, what, where and when for the big Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
This edition of the worldwide event that takes place every four years will make history in several different ways when it comes to size, events and locations.
Here’s everything you need to know about this February’s big gathering of the world’s best elite winter athletes.
Where are 2026 Winter Olympics taking place?
The Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo won the right to host this year’s edition of the Winter Games in 2019, beating out a bid from Stockholm–Are, Sweden in the final round of voting.
Milan, which is Italy’s second-largest city and is known as a global hub of fashion and design, will host events such as figure skating, speed skating and the hockey tournaments, as well as the opening ceremony.
Cortina d’Ampezzo is located 258 kms northeast of Milan in the Dolomites mountain range. It will host the women’s Alpine skiing, curling and sliding sports.
Val di Fiemme Cluster, Predazzo — just outside of Cortina — will be the home of all ski jumping events, while Tesero will host cross-country skiing and Nordic combined.
The men’s alpine skiing events will be held in Bormio, which is located between Milan and Cortina along Italy’s northern border with Switzerland and is a regular stop on the World Cup circuit.
Finally, the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events will take place in nearby Livigno.
To put a bow on things, the closing ceremony will take place in Verona.
When do the Winter Olympics start and end?
While the opening ceremonies will take place on Friday, Feb. 6, athletes in several different disciplines will be in action starting on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
The mixed doubles curling event kicks things off that day with some round-robin action, including Canada’s matchup against Czechia.
There also are official training runs in both luge and downhill skiing.
For a full schedule of events in Italy, the official Olympics website breaks things down either by sport or by day.
The Games will conclude on Sunday, Feb. 22, with the closing ceremony being held at the historic Verona Olympic Arena with a spectacle promising to “weave together music, art, and the pure spirit of sport, celebrating unity and the enduring bonds between athletes and nations.”
The Winter Paralympic Games will then begin on March 6 and will run until March 15.
When are Team Canada’s hockey games?
This probably will be the most-asked question of the bunch for the nest month.
Canada’s men’s team, which has been placed in Group A, starts things off with a game against Czechia on Feb. 12 at 10:40 a.m. (all times ET) before taking on Switzerland on Feb. 13 at 3:10 p.m.
Its final round-robin game comes against France on Feb. 15 at 10:40 a.m.
The quarterfinals take place on Feb. 18 and the semifinals on Feb. 20. The bronze-medal game is set for Feb. 21 at 2:40 p.m. and the gold-medal faceoff takes place on Feb. 22 at 8:10 a.m.
As for the women’s team, their quest for gold begins with round-robin games against Finland (Feb. 5 at 3:10 p.m.), Switzerland (Feb. 7, 3:10 p.m.), Czechia (Feb. 9, 3:10 p.m.) and the United States (Feb. 10, 2:10 p.m.).
The women’s playoff quarterfinals take place on Feb. 13-14, the semifinals on Feb. 16 and the medal games on Feb. 19 at 8:40 a.m. for bronze and 1:10 p.m. for gold.
What is the time difference?
In case you’re wondering why the starts you’re seeing for some events aren’t exactly in prime time in Canada, that’s because Italy obviously is well ahead of us.
Italy is part of the Central European time zone, which is six hours ahead of Ontario. If you are going off Greenwich Mean Time, Italy is GMT +1.
How many Canadian athletes will be competing?
Two hundred and seven athletes currently are slated to represent Canada at the Games in Italy, including 99 men and 108 women.
Of those elite competitors, veteran skiers Mikael Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson were chosen as Canada’s flag bearers for the opening ceremonies next week.
In total, roughly 2,900 athletes from more than 90 national Olympic committees will compete in 116 events — in eight sports and 16 disciplines — at this year’s edition of the Winter Games.
Where can I watch the 2026 Winter Olympics?
CBC is once again Canada’s home to Olympic coverage on television and online streaming.
The network reportedly will offer 22 hours of live coverage every day from the Games in Milano-Cortina, with more than 1,200 hours of live content — in both English and French — available on its digital platforms, including the CBC Gem app.
Who are the mascots for Milano Cortina 2026?
Every Olympic Games features some sort of cute mascot to help capture the attention of young fans and Milano-Cortina is no different.
Tina and Milo are a brother and sister pair of Italian stoats — a type of ferret — who will be representing the Olympics and Paralympics, respectively.
Their names are inspired by the host cities — Tina for Cortina d’Ampezzo and Milo for Milano.
They are joined by their six small flower mascots known as “the Flo.”