The Winter Olympics have arrived.
Hundreds of athletes from around the globe have traveled to Italy to compete in 116 medal events.
LISTEN: Your guide to the Winter Olympics
Here are key things to know about this year’s Games.
Who is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The 2026 Winter Olympics are being hosted by both Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, a ski town near Italy’s border with Austria. This is the first time the Olympics, in either season, has had two official host cities.
Model Vittoria Ceretti carries the Italian flag during the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, 2026. Photo by Claudia Greco/ Reuters
This marks Italy’s third time hosting the Winter Games. Previously, it hosted the 2006 Games in Turin, and the 1956 Games also in Cortina.
The events will take place across Northern Italy.
How many athletes will compete in the Winter Olympics?
There will be approximately 2,800 athletes representing more than 90 Olympic Committees, competing across 116 events in 16 disciplines.
Team USA is sending 232 athletes, its largest-ever contingent to a Winter Olympics.
The youngest: 15-year-old freeskier Abby Winterberger, hailing from Truckee, California. The most seasoned: 54-year-old curler Rich Ruohonen, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
A record number of women athletes
Women make up a record 47% of athletes at the 2026 Games, which will feature 50 women’s events, the most ever. Counting mixed events, women will participate in more than half of all competitions.
READ MORE: Are the 2024 Paris Olympics gender equal? That depends how you measure it
U.S. athletes to watch
All eyes will be on the U.S. Women’s Ski Team, as Lindsey Vonn returns to the Olympics for the first time since her 2019 retirement and partial knee replacement surgery.
Adding to her dramatic comeback, Vonn crashed Jan. 30 in her last race ahead of the Games, tearing her ACL and requiring an airlift off the mountain. In a social media post, she vowed to follow through with her plans to compete.
READ MORE: Lindsey Vonn ‘confident’ she can compete in Milan Cortina Olympics despite ruptured ACL
“I know what my chances in these Olympics were before this crash, and even though my chances aren’t the same now, there is still a chance. And as long as I have a chance, I will not lose hope. I will not give up!” she wrote.
Ahead of the opening ceremony, Vonn completed a successful training run just one week removed from her injury.
Lindsey Vonn of United States in action during training at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics, Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Belluno, Italy, on Feb. 6, 2026. Photo by Lisi Niesner/ Reuters
Vonn will be joined by fellow superstar Mikaela Shiffrin. They are two of the most decorated alpine skiers in history.
U.S. figure skater Maxim Naumov will take to the ice a little more than a year after his parents, who were also his coaches, were killed in the 2025 mid-air collision between a passenger plane and military helicopter in Washington, D.C.
The plane was carrying many members of the skating community, who were traveling home from a competition in Wichita, Kansas.
NHL players return to the Olympics
For the first time since 2014, NHL players will be allowed to compete, after the pro league, the NHL Players’ Association, International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Commission all struck an agreement in 2024.
The Dallas Stars celebrate a 2026 Winter Olympics sendoff for their players on Feb. 4, 2026, before the game between the Stars and the St. Louis Blues at the American Airlines Center. Photo by Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
The Winter Olympics come mid-season for the National Hockey league, and 145 players will suit up for the Olympics to represent their respective nations.
A new sport joins the Olympics
One new sport will enter the mix: ski mountaineering. Also known as skimo, the event has racers ascend a mountain, first on skis and then by foot, before returning to skis to race back down the mountain.
Both men and women will race in their respective sprints, and compete in a mixed relay race.
Will any athletes compete without a country?
Thirteen Russian athletes and seven Belarusian athletes will compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” as both nations’ official Olympic Committees remain banned due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supported by Belarus.
Each athlete had to be individually approved, and cannot “actively support the war.” The approved athletes can only compete on an individual basis; there will be no Russian teams competing as neutrals. Read: No Russian hockey team.