With exactly a year to go until the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Sky Sports News takes a closer look at the upcoming competition.

On February 6, 2026, the Games return to Europe’s mountains after 12 years, and to Italy for the first time in 20 years.

Milan Cortina won the right in 2019 to host the Games, beating competition from Stockholm.

Milan Cortina will be the first Winter Games with essentially two cities ‘co-hosting’. Milan will primarily hold the ‘indoor ice’ events while Cortina and surrounding clusters the ‘snow sports’.

Why are the 2026 Games significant within sport and beyond?

The Games return to Europe. The previous two editions of the Winter Olympics were hosted in South Korea and China with the Beijing 2022 Games heavily impacted by stringent Covid regulations.

The last Games in Europe in 2014 were hosted by Russia in the city of Sochi where only after the Games had concluded did the extent of widespread state-sponsored doping by the Russian state emerge, which ultimately led to Russia’s ban from many international competitions.

On a wider geo-political scale, three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin triumphantly closed the Sochi Olympics on February 23, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Climate Change and the future of the Winter Olympics will be on the agenda. Due to the planet’s changing climate fewer regions in the future will be able to sustainably host traditional winter sports.

All seven prospective IOC presidential candidates – with an election coming in March – have raised this issue within their manifestos.

Johan Eliasch, current president of FIS – Skiing and Snowboarding’s world governing body – and also one of the candidates – has said the Winter Games should be awarded on a rotation system and that probably no more than 10 areas in the world will be able to host the Games.

Seb Coe, another candidate to become IOC president, added that the Winter Olympics could also see new events like cross-country running and some traditionally summer Olympic sports that are played indoors move to a Winter Games setting.

And speaking of Coe and Eliasch, by the time the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics open, the IOC will have a new president following Thomas Bach’s 12-year tenure. A new president, depending on who is elected, may bring about significant change within the Olympic movement.

Concern over readiness of track for sliding sports

With a year to go, one of the key facilities of any Winter Olympics – the sliding track used for bobsleigh, skeleton and luge – has not been completed.

So worried are the IOC and local organisers that a reserve track is on standby. The problem is that the reserve track is not in Italy. It’s not even in Europe. Lake Placid in the USA is the back-up if the 1650m track in the Dolomites cannot be completed. Currently 190 workers are on shift seven days a week. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has become involved as national pride is at stake – Italy wants these Olympics to be 100 per cent Italian.

The option of moving sliding events to another track in Italy are no longer an option – the 2006 track used for the Turin Olympics when Italy last hosted the Winter Games faces demolition after being left unused following those Games.

Snow, or lack of it, is also an issue. Snowfall in European mountains has decreased rapidly in the last 40 years and 90 per cent of Italian ski resorts rely on artificial snow makers to augment their pistes and runs.

While artificial snowmakers have been used before at Olympic Games, they use large amounts of water and a significant amount of energy is required to power the machines.

Will team GB bounce back from 2022 ‘disappointment’?

Not known as a Winter Olympics powerhouse, Team GB has upped its game in the past few decades but the last Games – in Beijing in 2022 – where they won just two medals was described as a “disappointment” by UK Sport.

In 2014 and 2018 though, Team GB won five medals at each Games, matching a record haul for any British team stretching back over 100 years.

For Milan Cortina, hopes are again high as several medal candidates are performing to world-class standard in their events. Team GB will hope the sliding track delays and issues are resolved as it could be a source of medals. The four-man bobsleigh led by Brad Hall has this season been on the podium regularly, including winning gold at a World Cup event in Germany last month where they became the first non-German crew to win the event since 2012.

Both the women’s and men’s skeleton teams are strong once again. Team GB has, thanks to the women’s squads, won medals regularly since Shelly Rudman’s in 2006, including golds for Amy Williams in 2010 and Lizzy Yarnold winning back to back Gold in 2014 and 2018.

Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman have both medalled this season at world events, while in the men’s event Matt Weston claimed gold in January.

Freestyle skier Kirsty Muir is among the world’s best. The 20-year-old won X Games silver and bronze in 2023. Currently out of action recovering from an ACL injury, her aim is to be fit and ready to medal in 12 months’ time.

Elsewhere 17-year old snowboarder Mia Brookes has been on World Cup podiums, while 20 years her senior “The Rocket” Dave Ryding continues to mix it with the world’s best slalom skiers. Ryding, one of the sports great characters, would be competing in his fifth Games should he qualify for Milan 2026.

Figure skaters Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are also genuine medal contenders given their recent success at both the World and European Championships. They’ve just returned from Estonia with a bronze from this year’s European Championships, making it a bronze, silver and silver at their last three championships.

Now starting to beat their rivals for major medals, the tag of the new ‘Torvill & Dean’ has been placed upon them. Confident and fearless, they’re embracing the comparison although expect less ‘Bolero’ and more high octane ‘Beyonce’ from their routines.