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Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Dates and Locations Explained

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics ran from February 6 to 22 across 15 competition venues in northern Italy. Ice events centered on Milan, while mountain sports were spread among Cortina, Valtellina, Val di Fiemme and Anterselva, with the closing ceremony in Verona.

Timeline

  1. 2026-02-04: Some competition sessions began before the opening ceremony.
  2. 2026-02-06: The Olympic opening ceremony took place at San Siro in Milan.
  3. 2026-02-22: The Winter Olympics ended with the closing ceremony in Verona.
  4. 2026-03-06 to 2026-03-15: The Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics followed.

The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games were held from February 6 through February 22, 2026. The opening ceremony took place at Milan’s San Siro stadium and the closing ceremony at the historic Verona Arena. Some preliminary competition sessions began before the formal opening, which is normal for a schedule that must fit many tournaments into the Olympic window. The Winter Paralympics followed from March 6 to 15. [1][2][3]

Despite the name, the Games were not confined to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The organizing plan distributed events among four broad territories—Milano, Cortina, Valtellina and Val di Fiemme—with Anterselva hosting biathlon and Verona serving as a stand-alone ceremony site. The International Olympic Committee lists 15 sporting competition venues. Travel distances between clusters were substantial, so ‘where’ depended on the sport rather than one central Olympic park. [2][4][5]

Milan handled the main indoor ice program. Venues in and around the city hosted figure skating, short-track speed skating, speed skating and ice hockey, while San Siro staged the opening ceremony. This urban cluster connected large arenas and transport infrastructure. Spectators with tickets in multiple mountain clusters still needed separate travel plans because a Milan hotel was not necessarily convenient for an early event in the Dolomites or Valtellina. [2][4]

Cortina hosted women’s alpine skiing at Tofane, curling at the Cortina Olympic Stadium and the sliding sports—bobsleigh, luge and skeleton—at the Cortina Sliding Centre. Its role drew on a long winter-sport history, including the 1956 Winter Olympics. Cortina also featured in the Paralympic plan, but the Olympic and Paralympic schedules were separate events with different dates and ticketing. [2][4][5]

The other mountain venues divided disciplines according to terrain and existing expertise. Bormio’s Stelvio Ski Centre staged men’s alpine skiing and ski mountaineering, while Livigno hosted freestyle skiing and snowboard events. Anterselva hosted biathlon. In Val di Fiemme, Tesero held cross-country skiing and part of Nordic combined, and Predazzo held ski jumping and the jumping portion of Nordic combined. That distribution explains why official materials used clusters rather than a single venue list around the co-host cities. [2][4]

The spread-out plan emphasized use and adaptation of existing facilities, temporary venues and structures intended for later reuse. Organizers described only a limited group as completely new builds, including certain ice facilities and villages. That was the stated planning approach; whether every project ultimately delivered the intended cost, transport and legacy benefits is a separate evaluation requiring final audited and local evidence rather than promotional venue material alone. [4][5]

For historical schedules and results, Olympics.com and the official Milano Cortina archive are the appropriate starting points. A current traveler should not rely on 2026 spectator guidance because transport services, security zones and venue access changed after the Games. The concise answer remains: the Olympics ran February 6–22, 2026, across a network of northern Italian locations, with Milan anchoring ice events and several Alpine clusters hosting snow and sliding sports. [1][2][4]

Sources

  1. Olympics — Where and when the 2026 Winter Games took place
  2. Olympics — Milano Cortina 2026 competition venues
  3. IOC Newsroom — Milano Cortina 2026 closing ceremony
  4. Milano Cortina 2026 — Olympic and Paralympic venues
  5. Milano Cortina 2026 — Sustainability, impact and legacy report

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