Everything you need to know about the 2026 Winter Olympics

It’s as if we were only to watch Summer Games 2024 In Paris (aka the summer we’ve all become obsessed with breaking barriers), and now the 2026 Winter Olympics are here. The first Winter Olympics will start in Milan-Cortina on February 4, but the Olympics officially Starting on February 6 with the opening ceremony, the games continue until February 22.

This year marks the fourth time Italy has hosted the Olympic Games, and events such as ice hockey and figure skating will be held in the northern city of Milan, while the Alpine city of Cortina d’Ampezzo will host alpine skiing, figure skating and curling.

If you want to watch the entire 2026 Winter Games, the best place for American audiences is peacock. Every sport and event will be broadcast live, but if you’re careful with that time difference (Milan is six hours ahead of the East Coast), you can also watch full replays of the event as well.

If you want to tune in on network TV, the most popular events will be broadcast daily on NBC, USA and CNBC during daytime hours, and NBC will air Primetime in Milan, a nightly show featuring the best contests and highlights of the day. Now that you have those details, here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Winter Games.

What sports are in the Winter Olympics?

This year’s Winter Games feature 116 different medal events, with both men and women competing. Here is a list of the sports participating in this year’s Winter Games:

• Alpine skiing
• Biathlon
• sleigh
• Cross country skiing
• The window
• Snowboarding
• Freestyle skiing
• Ice hockey
• Big flip flops
• North combined
• Short track speed skating
• skeleton
• Ski jumping
• Ski mountaineering
• Snowboarding
• Speed ​​skating

New sports at the 2026 Winter Olympics

There will be 15 events at this year’s Winter Games that have featured in previous Olympics, but ski mountaineering — Skimo for short — is new for 2026. Ski mountaineering combines elements of alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding (downhill skiing) and bootpacking. Athletes are timed as they traverse a course consisting of uphill, downhill, and a foot section (without skis).

How many teams and countries are participating?

More than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries will compete in the 2026 Winter Games. This includes athletes in 16 Olympic events and six Paralympic sports. There will be 15 athletes competing as neutral individual athletes, the designation used to represent certified Russian and Belarusian individual athletes who are not represented by any National Olympic Committee.

Athletes to watch at the 2026 Winter Games

Some of the world’s greatest athletes are competing at this year’s Winter Games, including returning Olympic champions Lindsay Vonn and Chloe Kim, professional ice hockey players and more. Keep an eye on these contenders as the competition heats up.

skiing

• Lindsay Vonn (Team USA): Vonn came out of retirement to compete in this year’s Winter Games, thus becoming the oldest female competitive alpine skier in this year’s competition. A three-time Olympic medalist, Vonn is expected to compete in three events: downhill, combined team and super-G.
• Mikaela Shiffrin (Team USA): Joining Vonn on the alpine skiing team is three-time Olympic medalist Mikaela Shiffrin, who will compete to win her second gold medal in the giant slalom.
• Indra Brown (Team Australia): Another competitor to watch is 15-year-old freestyle skier Indra Brown, the youngest athlete selected to represent Australia this year.

Snowboarding

• Chloe Kim, Faye Thelen, Reed Gerrard, Nick Baumgartner (Team USA): Chloe Kim is synonymous with figure skating, and the gold medalist returns for her third Olympics this year. Returning Olympians Faye Thelen, Reed Gerard and Nick Baumgartner are also members of Team USA’s snowboarding team.
• Su Yiming (Chinese Team): A historic gold medalist at the 2022 Games, Su Yiming has been snowboarding since he was four years old and made a name for himself with his 1,980-degree spins.

Speed ​​skating

• Jordan Stolz, (Team USA): World record holder Jordan Stolz is seeking his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s 1,000 metres, one of four events in which he will compete.
• Lim Hyo Jun (Chinese Team): Lim Hyo Jun, who also competes as Lin Xiao Jun, previously competed for South Korea and switched to representing China at this year’s Olympics after becoming a naturalized Chinese citizen. He last competed at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, where he won a gold medal in the short track.

Snowboarding

There are five Olympic figure skating medal events at this year’s Winter Games: men’s singles, women’s singles, pairs, ice dancing and the team event.

• Amber Glenn (Team USA): Glenn is coming off her third straight US Championships title and will compete in women’s singles.
• Ilya Malinin (Team USA): Men’s world champion Ilya Malinin, nicknamed the “Quadruple God” for his ability to pull off quadruple jumps, is the favorite for gold in the men’s singles at this year’s Games. He is the son of Tatiana Malinina, an Olympic figure skater who competed for Uzbekistan in the 1990s.
• Kaori Sakamoto (Team Japan): Champion figure skating champion Kaori Sakamoto plans to retire after this year’s Olympics, aiming for gold after earning a bronze medal at the 2022 Winter Games.
• Max Naumov (Team USA): Naumov, the son of former Russian figure skating champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, is also scheduled to compete in the men’s singles. Naumov’s parents were among those killed in the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 over the Potomac River last year.
• Diana Stellato Dudek and Maxime Deschamps (Team Canada): Stellato Dudek, now 42, has returned to skating after a 16-year hiatus and is now gunning for gold with her partner Deschamps.
• Madison Chock and Evan Bates (Team USA): American ice dancing pair Chock and Bates are the subjects A new documentary series from Netflix Glitter & Gold: Dancing on Ice, alongside Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, Frenchmen Laurence Fournier Baudry and Guillaume Cizeron.

Ice hockey

• For the first time since 2014, professional ice hockey players have been named to Olympic national teams. Team USA consists of professionals from the NHL. In a rather impressive statistic, at least one player will be in the NHL All 32 teams Team Sweden, Team Canada, Team Finland, and Team Denmark compete in the Winter Games.
• Layla Edwards (Team USA): In 2023, Layla Edwards became the first Black woman to play for the USA Women’s National Hockey Team. She previously competed for the University of Wisconsin women’s ice hockey team, where she captured two national championships under the coaching of Mark Johnson, a member of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey team.

Who are some of the Winter Games commentators and performers?

The opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Games will be a star-studded event hosted by NBC News correspondent Savannah Guthrie and commentator Terry Gannon. The concert will include performances by Mariah Carey and Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli. Figure skater Shaun White, Sabrina Impacciatore of The White Lotus, and pianist Lang Lang will also participate.

YouTube creators will share behind-the-scenes footage of Team USA, including Jordan Howlett (aka Jordan The Stallion), Hunter and Tara Woodall, Alexa Rivera, Kylie Kelce, MMG, and Ashley Alexander.

NBC Primetime coverage in Milan will be hosted by sportscaster Mike Tirico, who will be joined most nights by Snoop Dogg, who made his debut commentary for the Paris Olympics. Actor and TV presenter Stanley Tucci will also be on hand to showcase the local cuisine, culture and lifestyle of the Italian cities hosting the Winter Games. Also on the ground in Italy will be Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster and more doll friends who will appear in social and audio coverage of the games.

As for the actual sporting events, NBC has enlisted more than 80 commentators and analysts to cover each event. They include Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir and Scott Hamilton, who will cover snowboarding; Former Olympians Peekaboo Street and Ted Ligety will provide skating analysis; Gold medalists White and Lindsay Jacobellis will cover the figure skating.