5 New Reasons to Tune In to Milano-Cortina 2026

Featured Image: Enrico Pozzi

The Olympics are all about tradition. This year, that tradition is getting a serious upgrade. It’s not just that everything is better in Italy (although one could argue so); the Olympic Committee has put in the work by making some rad additions to the event and athlete pool that are turning heads. From groundbreaking strides for female athletes to the addition of one of the fastest growing sports worldwide, the games this year are bringing the heat – or better yet, the cold. Here’s what’s new and firing us up this February.

1. Expansion of Women’s Events

The 2026 Winter Games are serving up four new golden opportunities for women, and all of them are worth a watch. First up: women’s dual moguls are hitting the slopes of Livigno, with big airs, quick turns and zero room for error. It’s a nail-biting competition on an icy zipper line that will be a must-see. Over on the luge track in Cortina, women’s doubles will make its Olympic debut, pairing up racers and doubling velocity. Twice the bodies flying around the track at Autobahn speeds makes this sport pure adrenaline. Large hill ski jumping finally puts women on the same launchpad as men – literally. Women will get the chance to send massive jumps on the same track as the guys. Longer airtime, bigger jumps and higher stakes: this one’s gonna be big. Lastly, new not only to the ladies, but to the Olympics as a whole, is the addition of ski mountaineering, or skimo.

These new events are no joke and will be a proving ground for women to set the stage for future Olympic hopefuls. No BS. No fluff. Just some badass, hardcore ladies.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Cortina d’Ampezzo, IT

2. Gender Balance

The Milano-Cortina games will be the most gender-balanced Winter Olympics in history. The four aforementioned new women’s events in Italy bring the total number from 46 to 50, bridging the gender gap further than ever before with a total of 54 men’s events.. The numbers demand attention: 47% of all athletes in the 2026 Winter Olympics will be women, up from 45.4% in Beijing in 2022 and only 40% in Sochi in 2014. About damn time.

New Women’s Events:

• Freestyle Skiing: Women’s Dual Moguls

• Luge: Women’s Doubles

• Ski Jumping: Women’s Large Hill Individual

• Ski Mountaineering: Women’s Sprint

New Mixed Events:

• Skeleton: Mixed

• Freestyle Skiing: Mixed Dual Moguls

• Luge: Mixed Relay

• Ski Mountaineering: Mixed Relay

PHOTO: Enrico Pozzi

3. Debut of Ski Mountaineering

Ever wanted to don your dad’s 85 mm skinny skis, run them up a mountain and bomb back down, all while wearing a spandex unisuit? You might just have an Olympic future. For the first time ever, skimo will be an official medal event at the Winter Games.

Blending uphill endurance with technical mountaineering and downhill speed, skimo challenges athletes to sprint up with skins, transition as quickly as possible and charge back down on a pair of toothpicks. This sufferfest of a sport gained traction back in 2016. That year saw the establishment of the International Ski Mountaineering Federation and the standardization of skimo racing rules. Skimo sequentially had a successful run at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2020 and got the green light for Milano-Cortina games back in July 2021. This is a big moment for the backcountry scene: one that will recognize the athletes that chase more summits than medals.

Skimo will debut with three new categories in Italy: men’s sprint, women’s sprint and mixed relay.

4. Most Geographically Widespread Games Ever

We all know the Olympics are big, but Milano-Cortina is taking it to another level. The 2026 Winter Games will be the most widespread in terms of venue locations ever, spanning over 22,000 square kilometers (nearly 8,500 square miles). Translation: this isn’t the walk-everywhere European vacation you went on after college.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Bormio, IT

5. The UAE’s First Ever Winter Olympian

One of the coolest, or warmest, additions to this winter’s games will be a brand new nation. The United Arab Emirates is sending its first ever Winter Olympic Athletes to Milano-Cortina for Alpine Skiing. The athlete, who is yet to be named, qualified for the games under the basic quota system, a stipulation in the Olympic rules allowing nations that are developing their winter sports programs to send athletes to the games. Think of it as the wildcard slot for the Olympics for nations where snow is more of a dream than reality. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, indeed.

PHOTO: Roby Trab

It’s a small but impactful step towards global inclusion in the games, and an important reminder that the Olympics isn’t about who wins, it’s about who gets to show up. Expect lots of fans and a few slick turns in the UAE indoor ski dome to celebrate.

The Olympics are always a mix of century old tradition and curated innovation. Milano-Cortina 2026 is carrying the torch across the board into a new era of Winter Sports. This edition of the Winter Olympics promises not only more women and more countries represented than ever before, but also a widespread show of the beautiful geography of Northern Italy. It doesn’t just raise the bar, it’s tossing it straight into the Dolomites. Change is in the Italian alpine air, and it’s blowing in the right direction.