The 2026 Winter Olympics are set to be held in Italy from Feb. 6-20. Ice events will be hosted by Milan, and mountain events will be in Cortina and other areas. Athletes have already begun to arrive in Milan, where the opening ceremony will be at the San Siro Stadium.
The Winter Olympics will feature 16 sports and 116 medal events, including alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, snowboard, and speed skating. The new event this year is ski mountaineering, which is a combination of uphill climbing and downhill skiing on a challenging terrain.
The U.S. is considered a strong contender to win, especially when it comes to alpine skiing and hockey. Norway is another good competitor, and they have historically dominated the Winter Olympics. and Canada, who is another strong hockey candidate.
Students are getting excited to watch the games. Junior Caden Marshall talks about what she is looking forward to.
“I am really looking forward to watching snowboarding and skiing,” Marshall said.
Marshall also talked about the sport she would do if she was in the Olympics.
“If I could be on any Olympic team for winter sports it would probably be for the U.S. snowboarding team. I’ve always gone snowboarding during the winter and have enjoyed watching the X games competitions,” Marshall said.
Both the U.S. and Canada are top contenders to win gold in snowboarding with Chloe Kim (U.S.) projected to win her third straight gold for women’s halfpipe and Maddie Mastro (U.S.) having strong chances for women’s slopestyle.
Senior Trenten Cash is also planning on watching the Games, talking about his dream Olympic team.
“If I could be on the olympic team for any winter sport I would definitely choose to be on the biathlon team,” Cash said.
The biathlon combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting, with Norway, Germany, and France being the historic leaders. The U.S. has never won a medal in the biathlon, making it the only winter sport the U.S. has never medaled in.
Students can watch the Olympics on NBC or stream live on Peacock, and coverage will also be available on the NBC Olympics website and app. The opening ceremony will be on Feb. 6 around 2 p.m. ET.
