The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially underway — even though the opening ceremony hasn’t happened yet.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, hosted across multiple cities and venues in northern Italy, have launched their first competitive events today, a full two days before the opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at the iconic San Siro Stadium in Milan on Friday, February 6.
It is a tradition that stretches back through multiple editions of the Olympic Games, both summer and winter. Certain sports with packed schedules and lengthy tournament formats simply need extra days to fit all their rounds in, meaning athletes take to the ice and slopes before the ceremonial torch is lit and the parade of nations fills the host stadium.
This year, mixed doubles curling led the way. The very first competitive action of the Milano Cortina Games began on Wednesday, February 4, at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo, with round-robin matches including Sweden against Korea, Great Britain against Norway, Canada against Czech Republic, and Estonia against Switzerland. Curling holds a unique distinction at these Games: it is the only sport scheduled to have competition on every single day of the Olympics, from February 4 all the way through to February 22.
Thursday, February 5, brings an even busier slate. Women’s ice hockey preliminary round matches get underway, with Sweden facing Germany, Italy taking on France, the United States against Czech Republic, and Finland meeting Canada. Men’s snowboard big air qualification also begins on Thursday, along with additional curling mixed doubles sessions. Alpine skiing and luge official training runs are also scheduled ahead of Friday’s ceremony.
On Friday, February 6 — the day of the opening ceremony itself — the action intensifies further. Team figure skating kicks off with ice dance and pair skating short programs in the morning. Additional women’s ice hockey preliminary matches, more curling sessions, and ski jumping official training rounds are all set to take place before the ceremony begins at 8:00 p.m. local time that evening.
The opening ceremony, themed “Armonia” (Harmony), promises to be a spectacular occasion at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, better known as San Siro. The ceremony will feature confirmed performances from global superstar Mariah Carey, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, singer Laura Pausini, pianist Lang Lang, opera singer Cecilia Bartoli, actress Sabrina Impacciatore — known for her role in HBO’s The White Lotus — actor Pierfrancesco Favino, actress Matilda De Angelis, and violinist Giovanni Zanon. A special tribute to the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani is also planned.
In a first for the Olympic Games, the ceremony will extend beyond a single venue. Simultaneous celebrations and athlete parades will take place in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Predazzo, and Livigno, reflecting the geographically distributed nature of these Games. For the first time, two Olympic cauldrons will be lit in perfect synchrony — one at the Arco della Pace in Milan and one at Piazza Dibona in Cortina.
The first medal events won’t take place until Saturday, February 7, when athletes compete for gold in disciplines including men’s downhill skiing in Bormio, women’s 3,000-meter speed skating, men’s snowboard big air finals, and women’s ski jumping normal hill. The Games will then run through to the closing ceremony on February 22 at the historic Verona Arena, with 116 medal events across 16 disciplines.
These Games mark several milestones. Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut as an entirely new discipline, the first new winter sport added since skeleton joined the program at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. NHL players return to Olympic ice for the first time since 2014. And the Milano Cortina edition is the most geographically spread Winter Olympics in history, with competition venues spanning four main clusters across Lombardy and northeastern Italy: Milan, Cortina, Valtellina, and Val di Fiemme.
For fans eager to follow the action, every event is available through official broadcast partners. In the United States, coverage is available on NBC and Peacock. In the United Kingdom, the BBC is showing selected events on free-to-air television, while TNT Sports and Discovery+ offer comprehensive coverage.
So while the world waits for Friday’s ceremony and the formal declaration that the Games have begun, the competition itself is already in full swing. The stones are sliding, the schedules are packed, and the 2026 Winter Olympics are officially here.
