Winter Olympics Return to Europe with Milano Cortina 2026

After 20 years, the Winter Olympic Games are returning to Europe and once again to Italy, but beyond the location, Milano Cortina 2026 will have little in common with the Turin Games of 2006.

I am familiar with the Winter Olympic Games not only from television screens, having covered them twice on site, in Sochi in 2014 and in Beijing in 2022. And while the name of a single host city often dominates the official title, this rarely reflects the true scale of the event. Winter Olympics require vast areas for venues, mountains and snow, meaning that host cities typically provide the main stadium for the opening ceremony and a handful of central locations, while individual disciplines/competitions themselves can be spread dozens or even hundreds of kilometres away, as was the case in China.

Milano Cortina 2026 follows a similar logic, yet on an even more pronounced scale. Far from being centred on a single city, the Games will unfold across several mountain clusters, underlining a model that increasingly defines the reality of modern winter sport. 

Organisers have framed this edition as a decentralised, territory-based model, designed around existing infrastructure and regional legacy rather than a single host city. Competitions will be spread across several clusters, including Milan, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Valtellina, Val di Fiemme and Anterselva, reflecting a format increasingly shaped by geography and sustainability considerations. 

In total, the Games are expected to bring together around 2,900 athletes from more than 90 countries, competing across sixteen Olympic sports and 116 medal events. While Milan will serve primarily as the symbolic, media and ceremonial centre, the competitive heart of the event will lie in the alpine regions, reflecting a clear shift away from the compact model seen in Turin in 2006. This distributed approach inevitably adds logistical complexity, but organisers argue it also reduces environmental pressure on individual locations and leaves a more balanced legacy for host regions.

Snow, climate change and an artificial reality 

Snow reliability has become one of the defining challenges of modern Winter Olympic Games, and organisers have openly acknowledged that Milano Cortina 2026 will rely heavily on artificial snow. Andrea Varnier, Chief Executive Officer of the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee, has previously underlined that "climate change is a reality that winter sports must face, and guaranteeing fair and safe competitions increasingly depends on technical solutions rather than natural snowfall alone." 

This reality is far from unique to Italy. Having followed winter sports closely over the years, particularly biathlon, it has become increasingly evident how difficult it has become for organisers to prepare snow-covered courses. At World Championships and World Cup events alike, artificial snow has almost become a constant presence, often proving decisive in allowing competitions to take place at all. 

Andrea Varnier has also stressed that this reliance is driven by necessity rather than choice, noting that "without artificial snow, many winter competitions in Europe would simply no longer be possible." While this adaptation allows events to go ahead, it also brings environmental consequences, as snow-making requires significant amounts of water and energy. 

For the Winter Olympics, this balance is particularly delicate. Snow is not only a technical requirement but also a defining symbol of winter sport. The growing visibility of artificial snow inevitably reshapes how these disciplines are perceived and raises broader questions about the future of Winter Games on a continent where natural winter conditions are becoming less predictable. 

Opening ceremony: symbolism before the mountains 

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games is scheduled for Friday 6 February 2026 and will take place in Milan, underlining the city's role as the symbolic and media centre of an otherwise geographically dispersed event. The ceremony is set to be held at San Siro Stadium (home to AC Milan and Inter Milan football teams), a venue capable of hosting around 80,000 spectators, making it one of the largest settings ever used for a Winter Olympic opening. 

According to the organising committee, the choice of Milan reflects a deliberate contrast with the alpine competition venues, positioning the ceremony as a unifying moment before the Games move to the mountains. While full details of the artistic programme have yet to be unveiled, organisers have indicated that the concept will focus on Italian identity, innovation and regional diversity, rather than a traditional spectacle centred solely on winter imagery. 

As with recent Olympic editions, the ceremony is expected to bring together heads of state, international dignitaries and senior representatives of the Olympic movement, alongside athletes from more than 90 participating nations. Beyond its ceremonial function, the event is designed to set the tone for the Games, framing them as a modern, decentralised edition shaped by geography, sustainability and adaptation. 

Rather than signalling the disappearance of winter sports, Milano Cortina 2026 illustrates how the Olympic movement is adapting to a changing climate. The challenge will be to ensure that this adaptation remains credible and environmentally responsible, while preserving the essence of sports increasingly shaped by human intervention. 

Luxembourg on the Olympic stage: continuity over scale 

Among the delegations taking part in the opening ceremony will be Luxembourg, whose Winter Olympic presence remains modest in size but rich in symbolism. The Grand Duchy will be represented in alpine skiing by Gwyneth Ten Raa and Matthieu Osch, both competing in slalom and giant slalom events. 

For Gwyneth, Milano Cortina 2026 will mark her second Olympic appearance, following her debut at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, where she also served as Luxembourg's flag bearer. Matthieu, meanwhile, will be competing in his third Winter Olympics, after appearances in PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022, bringing a level of experience rarely associated with small delegations. 

Alpine skiing carries particular historical weight for Luxembourg. It was in this discipline that the country secured its first and, to date, only Winter Olympic medals, when Marc Girardelli won two silver medals at the Albertville Games in 1992. More than three decades on, his achievements remain a benchmark and a reminder that Olympic relevance is not measured solely by team size, but also by continuity and legacy. 

In that sense, Luxembourg's presence at Milano Cortina 2026 represents less a pursuit of medals than a reaffirmation of participation. It is a quiet but consistent thread connecting past success to present ambition, and one that continues to define the Grand Duchy's place within the wider Olympic narrative. 

The Winter Olympic Games will run for just over two weeks, bringing together thousands of athletes, officials and volunteers across multiple regions. Spread between urban and alpine venues, this edition reflects a format shaped by practical considerations, with competitions unfolding far beyond the boundaries of a single host city. 

Within this broader framework, Luxembourg's place in the Olympic family extends beyond athletic participation alone. While the Grand Duchy competes on a modest scale at the Winter Games, Grand Duke Henri, a member of the International Olympic Committee, is expected to attend competitions, underlining the country's long-standing institutional engagement with the Olympic movement. At the same time, Luxembourg is preparing to host the Games of the Small States of Europe in 2029, stepping into a different Olympic role focused on cooperation, proximity and shared values. Together, these two events illustrate complementary expressions of the same Olympic ideal. One is global and complex, the other compact and communal, both rooted in unity through sport.