100 days to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the important things to know

When will the Olympic Games begin

The Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will officially open in 100 days, on 6 February 2026, with the Olympic Opening Ceremony at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium (San Siro Olympic Stadium). In addition to the main venue in San Siro, there will be parties and activities in the other Olympic territories, with widespread ceremonies and the traditional parades of the delegations that will take place in Predazzo, Livigno and Cortina d'Ampezzo, involving the athletes in their competition venues and ensuring broad public participation: from fans and spectators to citizens and residents.

The Opening Ceremony at San Siro

The Opening Ceremony of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games will be produced by Balich Wonder Studio, which has already created memorable Olympic Ceremonies. The chosen title is Harmony: a universal concept that becomes a visual and emotional story and will be the leitmotif of a narrative that intertwines fantasy and beauty, Leonardo Da Vinci and the great inventors, Italian design and taste, music and elegance. A collective story that celebrates Italian talent in all its forms: from artists to athletes, to the young people who are building tomorrow. The first name announced among the many who will star in the show is that of Matilda De Angelis, an Italian actress appreciated all over the world.

The Olympic Torch

The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Torch, called Essential, was created by Eni, Premium Partner of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, in collaboration with Versalis (Eni), Official Supporter of the Games. Eni and Versalis chose Studio Carlo Ratti Associati for the development of the design and Cavagna Group for the engineering and production. The design of the Torch aims to highlight the Flame, the undisputed protagonist of the journey that will take it across Italy, while the part that feeds and supports it has been designed to celebrate technological innovation.

...and the Olympic Torch Relay

On 26 November, the flame will once again be lit in Olympia for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, beginning a 9-day journey through Greece. More than 450 torchbearers will travel 2,200 km across 23 regional units and 7 regions, with 36 welcome ceremonies along the way, before arriving on December 4 at the Panathenaic Stadium, the cradle of the modern Games, for the handover ceremony to the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee.

From 6 December, the Flame will resume its journey in Italy, where for 63 days 10,001 torchbearers will cross 110 provinces among the 20 Italian regions for a total of 12,000 kilometers. The first stop will be Rome, and from there the journey will continue throughout the country: at Christmas it will be in Naples, on New Year's Eve in Bari and on 26 January it will return to Cortina d'Ampezzo 70 years after the Opening Ceremony of the 1956 Games. From there, it will finally conclude its journey in Milano, entering the San Siro Stadium on the evening of Friday, 6 February 2026. The route is also designed to pay tribute to the great historical and cultural heritage of our country, which boasts the largest number of UNESCO sites in the world.

Coca-Cola and Eni are the Presenting Partners of the Olympic Torch Relay, accompanying this extraordinary moment that marks the last stretch of the road before the start of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.

Torchbearers already announced

The last torchbearers to be announced are Giuseppe Tornatore, Alessandra Mastronardi, Andrea Soncin and Cristiana Girelli: two personalities from the world of cinema and two from sport, in this case football. Along with them, Valentina Placida and her father Vincenzo were also announced, with the latter running while pushing his daughter's stroller, giving a powerful message of hope to families living in fragile situations, and then Chiara Vingione, European and world basketball champion with the FISDIR National Team (Italian Federation of Intellectual and Relational Paralympic Sports).

Earlier, the artist Achille Lauro, the sportsmen Flavia Pennetta, a former tennis player, and Francesco Bagnaia, a MotoGP rider, had been announced, as well as Franco and Andrea Antonello, father and son who are witnesses of resilience and love, Dario Pivirotto, born in 1936, who has already carried the Olympic Flame during the Cortina 1956 and Turin 2006 Games, and finally Lucia Tellone, a chef from Abruzzo who has revived the community oven in her town, which had been out of action for 35 years, and who teaches children and adults the art of baking free of charge.

The Olympic territories

The Olympic Torch Relay will affect all the Olympic territories, the places where these Olympics will take place. The events have been divided into four main clusters or geographical areas: Milano, Valtellina (with Bormio, Valdisotto, Livigno), Cortina d'Ampezzo (which includes Anterselva/Antholz), Val di Fiemme (Predazzo, Tesero) and a standalone city, Verona, which will host the Closing Ceremony and then the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics.

To find out where the many events scheduled for the Games will be held, see the dedicated page on the website.

The Olympic Sports of Milano Cortina 2026

Sixteen sports are scheduled for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, in alphabetical order: alpine skiing, alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, ski jumping, short track speed skating, skeleton, snowboard.

Test events

The Olympic test events are international or national competitions that take place in the competition areas of the Games and that aim to simulate the conditions that will occur when the event officially begins. On 29 and 30 November 2025, one of the stages of the ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating - the circuit of youth speed skating events - will be a test and will mark a historic moment: it will be the first time that the spotlights will be turned on the ice of the Milano Speed Skating Stadium, one of the venues that will represent the heart of the Milano Cortina 2026 competitions within the Milano Ice Park in Rho.

In Cortina d'Ampezzo, a test event is scheduled from 17 to 23 November on the occasion of the IBSF World Cup, the highest level of bobsleigh and skeleton competitions organized by the International Federation (IBSF) outside the World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games. The event will be held at the Cortina Sliding Centre, on the Eugenio Monti Olympic track.

To discover all the scheduled test events, visit the dedicated page of the website.

Tickets information

Milano Cortina 2026 tickets are on sale only on the official ticketing portal: https://tickets.milanocortina2026.org/. All tickets will be digital, and by purchasing them outside the official channels, the buyer runs the risk that the tickets or packages will not be delivered to them or that they will be canceled by the Organising Committee according to the terms and conditions.

The medals and podiums of the Games

An essential design was conceived for the medals, which focuses on emotions and teamwork, and symbolizes the union not only of two cities, Milano and Cortina d'Ampezzo, but also the soul of victory and the efforts to conquer it. They were created by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS), Official Sponsor of the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

On 29 October 2025, to mark the milestone of 100 days to go until the start of the Olympic Games, the official podiums for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled. Created by Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 in collaboration with the Cavaletti + Pagliariccio studio, the podiums combine contemporary design with Italian craftsmanship, embodying the identity of this edition through chromatic gradients and shading that highlight its dynamism and visual identity.

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