2026 Winter Olympics awarded to Italy’s Milan and Cortina

Today at 18:00 CEST IOC President Thomas Bach announced that Italy will host the 2026 Olympics in Milano and Cortina d’Ampezzo, taking the Winter Games to the Alpine country for the second time in 20 years.

International Olympic Committee members voted for the long-favored Milan-Cortina bid over Stockholm-Are. Italy last hosted in Turin in 2006, and the Alpine ski resort Cortina previously hosted the Winter Games in 1956

Milan–Cortina proposed four venue zones, with six Athletes' Villages. The suggested zones are: Milan (ice hockey, figure skating, short track speed skating), Valtellina (men's alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboard), Cortina (women's alpine skiing, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, curling, biathlon), and Val di Fiemme (cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, speed skating).

Only one permanent competition venue (for ice hockey) would need to be built, although it is being built irrespective of the Games.

Milan's Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, also known as the San Siro stadium, would host the Opening Ceremony, while Verona's ancient Roman amphitheatre is proposed for the Closing Ceremony.

Italy has hosted 61 World Cup events in Alpine Skiing with high demanding performances in term of big events. Also, Bormio hosted 2003 World Championship and Cortina D’Ampezzo will host the 2021 one.

Sofia Goggia, Olympic gold medal at Pyeongchang Olympics 2018 and spokesman of the candidacy, talked of her hopes to compete on home snow in almost seven years’ time and gave her input to achieve this historical goal for Italy.

In total, Italy hosted 173 major international events in the winter sport since 2008/2009.

This includes eight bobsleigh, luge and skeleton World Cups and a luge World Championships at Cesana; 18 freestyle ski World Cup stops including two in Milan, biathlon has held the annual World Cup circuit every year in the last 11 seasons and cross-country skiing had 39 World Cup stops. Nordic combined, and ski jumping, mostly at Val di Fiemme, in addition to the 2012/13 Nordic World Ski Championships in the resort.

Milan hosted the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships eight years after Turin did so, while Cortina held the World Mixed Doubles Championships and World Men's Championships in curling in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

And in snowboard, the country has staged at least one stop every year during this period, holding a total of 28 World Cup events in that time.