Guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics: Events, locations and Aussies to watch with one year to go
With one year to go until the 2026 Winter Olympics, Aussie competitors are determined to continue to shine after Paris success as they come off their ‘best international season.’ Click inside for your Guide to the Games.
Still buzzing after the incredible success of their summer teammates in Paris last year, Australia’s winter Olympians are gearing up for their chance to shine on the world stage.
Thursday marks the one year countdown to the Opening Ceremony for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, which will run from Feb 6-22, and already there is a whiff of excitement in the air.
“It’s game on now,” said Alisa Camplin, Australia’s first female Winter Olympic gold medallist and the team’s chef de mission. “We have a really beautiful mix of athletes getting ready to represent for these Games.
“We have a large old guard who have high expectations for themselves because they’ve continued to hit the podium many times over the last few Olympics and they’re all building and on track.
“But we’ve also got lots of youth, who all have this can-do, the world is my oyster opportunity…so everyone is lifting.”
Like Paris, the next Winter Olympics will take place in one of Europe’s most beautiful settings, a northern Italy winter wonderland that Australians will instantly fall head over heels in love with.
But looks can also be deceiving. The eight different venues that are being used for Milano Cortina are so spread out that the 2026 Games present logistic challenges never encountered before - which is something Camplin thinks might play in Australia’s favour.
“There’s the fairytale and then there’s the practical. Paris was so inspiring for everyone so the athletes got energy off the back of that,” Camplin said.
“We’re going into a heritage location, ex Olympic venues, quintessential mountain ranges, so that’ll bring some heart and soul into these Games for athletes and spectators alike.
“But the reality is that it’s a highly dispersed Games, so we’re not going to be one big team all located in big hubs.
Let's step back in time to 1956. 🕛 The last time Cortina d'Ampezzo hosted the Winter Olympics! The Games were opened on this day 69 years ago with a magical ceremony on a crisp winter's day. â„ï¸
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) January 26, 2025
Only 376 days remain until the Opening Ceremony of @milanocortina26! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/IwvEj8jDYs
“There’s going to be more challenges but I’m excited about that because while it might look magical on the outside this is our opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
“We’re really hardy, we’re good at having to adapt in the moment and handle challenges and that’s something we perhaps don’t always give ourselves enough credit for.”
There’s no such thing as easy medals at the Winter Olympics so no-one is counting their chickens yet but there is justified optimism that this could be the best team ever in green and gold to hit the ice and snow.
That’s saying something because Australia has won at least one medal at each of the last eight Winter Olympics, including a record four medals at the last games in Beijing, as well as double golds in 2002 and 2010.
But the team’s improvement since the last Winter Olympics in Beijing, which took place under the strict Covid rules in place at the time, has been nothing short of amazing.
In the 2023-24 season, Aussie winter athletes collected a combined total of 50 medals on the different World Cup circuits.
“We have a lot of athletes that have a lot of expectations for themselves,” Camplin said. “We’ve just had our best international World Cup season across all winter sports so we’ve got some athletes doing unbelievable things this year and some young kids coming up.
“But I’m actually much more focused on getting the environment right than predicting what they could do because if I do my job and we back the team behind the team that gives them the greatest chance.
“There’s always surprises and disappointments, that’s the thing with winter sports but I’m excited for this group.
“It’s such a wonderful mix of humans and sports competing in a breadth of sports.
“We feel that we’ve built the right for Australia to tune in and support us because we believe we’re going to do ourselves and our families proud but we also want Australia to be proud.”
GUIDE TO THE GAMES
NUMBER OF COMPETITORS
Exact numbers are still to be finalised but the total is expected to be around 2,900, made up of about 93 different countries. Russia and Belarus are banned from sending teams but some athletes from those countries will be allowed to compete as Individual Neutral Athletes (INAs)
Australia is expected to send a team of around 50 competitors, competing in 12 sports, equal to its second biggest ever.
EVENTS
There will be a record 116 gold medals up for grabs after the inclusion of ski mountaineering (Ski Mo) for the first time as well as some additional events in other disciplines such as dual moguls and mixed team skeleton.
There are 16 disciplines in all: Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing (includes aerials, moguls, ski cross and freeski), ice hockey, luge, nordic combined, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, ski mountaineering, snowboarding (includes snowboard cross, halfpipe, big air), speed skating.
The first competition actually starts two days before the Opening Ceremony, with mixed curling commencing on Feb 4.
VENUES
This is the first time two cities will jointly host an Olympic Games, with events spread over eight different competition venues across a total area of 22,000 km2.
Most of the ice venues will take place in Milan, in northern Italy, including the Opening Ceremony at San Siro, the home ground for AC Milan and Inter Milan football clubs.
The other events, which mostly take place on snow, will be held in clusters around Cortina d’Ampezzo in the spectacular Dolomite Alps, around 350 km north east of Milan.
The Closing Ceremony will take place at the Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheatre built in 30AD.
AUSTRALIAN ATHLETES TO WATCH
Jakara Anthony won gold in the women’s moguls at Beijing and is on track to defend her title despite currently being injured. In 2023-24, she set a new record for most ever wins in a season for a mogul skier, claiming gold in 14 of the 16 events and securing the World Cup champion crystal globe for moguls, dual moguls and overall.
Veteran aerial freestyle skier Danielle Scott has won the World Cup champion’s crystal globe for the past two seasons.
Teenage snowboard sensation Valentino Guseli has won back to back Crystal Globes as the season’s top overall performer in park and pipe events, which combines results from halfpipe, big air and slopestyle.
Former hurdler Bree Walker recorded Australia’s first bobsleigh World Cup gold medal in 2024. She finished fifth in the monobob at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Speed skater Brendan Corey became the first Australian to win a World Championship medal since 1994 with a bronze over 1500m.
Snowboard Cross athletes Cameron Bolton and Josie Baff finished their last seasons ranked third and fourth in the world, respectively.
Laura Peel, who was chosen as an Australian flag-bearer in Beijing, is the current leader in this year’s aerials points standings. She is already a double world champion.
Halfpipe snowboarder Scotty James keeps going from strength to strength after recently becoming a father. Won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics, then silver in 2022 so is hoping to complete the set with gold in 2026.
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