Dispatch from Milan: the 2026 Winter Olympics at a Glance

The Summer Olympics are a massive, all-encompassing spectacle with hundreds of medals and tens of thousands of athletes. However, I’m partial to the more intimate nature of the Winter Olympics, with fewer events, athletes, medals, and obscure sports like curling, biathlon, and luge that come into the public consciousness only once every four years. And as a global athletic jamboree, the Olympics represent the intersection of sports, politics, and multiculturalism, bringing out the best in humanity.

In this article, I’ll provide a brief snapshot of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, helping you make sense of these two jam-packed weeks of winter sports action and highlighting the controversies, highlights, and comebacks during my favorite time of the year.

Last Olympics in Beijing

The last Winter Olympics were held in 2022 in Beijing, China, on the heels of the pandemic. Strict Covid protocols prevented fans from attending many events, and athletes were isolated from one another to avoid transmission. The Games were also mired in political controversy over human rights violations in China, prompting a diplomatic boycott by 10 countries and several others sending no athletes, purportedly due to “Covid precautions.”

This Olympics will take place across multiple cities in Lombardy and Northeast Italy, with Milan and Cortina serving as the nexus of the Games. This is the first Olympics to be jointly hosted by two cities — a move that has been praised for its economic and environmental sustainability. This Olympics is also not immune to controversy: the U.S. has drawn scrutiny from voices across the globe for the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Games and while the presence of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division is not unprecedented at a large international sporting event like the Olympics, the recent domestic immigration crackdowns have led many, including the mayor of Milan, to criticize ICE’s presence.

First Medals/Events of the Olympics

For the first time since the event’s debut in 2014, the U.S. has made it to the finals of mixed doubles curling with a team of Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse (affectionately known as “Team Korey/Cory”), who ultimately fell in the gold-medal match to a brother and sister duo from Sweden. Norway currently leads the medal count with a total of six golds, which comes as no surprise for the winningest nation in the history of the Winter Games.

The Italians have found an unprecedented home-turf advantage at the Games so far with nine medals in total. On Saturday, speed skater Francesca Lollobrigida delivered a historic performance, upsetting the heavily favored Dutch women’s team, breaking the Olympic record, and winning the gold in the 3000-meter event on her birthday! Japan has also been off to a strong start, taking home two golds and a silver in men’s and women’s big air snowboarding, as well as the silver in the team figure skating event. Finally, Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl made history by winning the men’s parallel giant slalom snowboarding competition and becoming the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympics history at the age of 40 years and 115 days.

Women’s Alpine Skiing

After a series of major knee surgeries and the announcement of her retirement in 2019, it seemed like Lindsey Vonn’s alpine skiing career was over. But one of the most decorated alpine skiers of all time made an improbable comeback, coming out of retirement in 2024 and qualifying for her first Olympic Games since 2018. Vonn was a strong medal contender for the women’s downhill event, but a crash two weeks ago in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, left her with a completely ruptured left ACL. Miraculously, Vonn still intended to compete, but fell early on in her downhill run on Saturday morning with a complex leg fracture and needed to be airlifted off the course. The first American gold medal of the Games went to fellow American, Breezy Johnson in the downhill event. Johnson competed again alongside alpine skiing GOAT Mikaela Shiffrin in the team combined event, posting another best time on the course, but the pair fell short of the podium. The American duo Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan won the bronze with the Austrians topping the podium.

Men’s and Women’s Hockey

These Olympic Games are an exciting one for men’s ice hockey: the NHL came to an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation, creating a break in the NHL regular season that will allow NHL players to represent their home countries at the Olympics for the first time since 2014. Each of the 32 countries that qualified for men’s ice hockey will have at least one NHL player on their roster, with over 20 players making their Olympic debuts. In keeping with tradition, the men’s hockey gold medal game will be the last event of the Olympics on Sunday, Feb. 22.

On the women’s side, momentum from the newly formed Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) has brought heightened attention and stakes to the event. The American team is led by five-time Olympian Hilary Knight and includes young standout Laila Edwards, the first Black woman to play for the U.S. national team. In a preliminary face-off on Tuesday, the U.S. demolished arch-rival Canada 5-0, but the two will likely meet again later in the tournament in the gold medal game on Thursday, Feb.19. The American women have also defeated both Finland and Czechia in the preliminary round, bringing Knight to a total of 14 Olympic career goals — tying the all-time U.S. women’s record with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King.

Russian Athletes Still Unaffiliated

Since 2017, Russian athletes have not been allowed to compete under the Russian flag due to state-sanctioned doping and, later, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. While the doping sanctions expired in 2022, Russia remains indefinitely suspended due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Belarus has faced a similar suspension due to its involvement in the war. This year, 13 Russian and seven Belarusian athletes are competing as Individual “Neutral Athletes,” but did not participate in the opening ceremonies and will not have the Russian anthem played at medal ceremonies.

American Figure Skating in the Spotlight

This year could see a return to dominance for American figure skating with seasoned athletes bringing an exciting culture shift and momentum to the sport. On the women’s side, a trio of three skaters — Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito — dubbed the “Blade Angels” — are expected to break the U.S.’s 20-year medal drought in the individual category. At 26, Glenn would be the oldest female skater to win the individual event since 1908, and is a charismatic favorite for the gold. Liu, who previously retired at 16, has also made a remarkable comeback at age 20. This weekend, Liu came in second place in the women’s short program, and Glenn came in third place in the women’s free skate as part of the team event. Both will look to improve on those performances next week during the individual competition.

On the men’s side, Ilia Malinin is making his Olympic debut as the two-time World Champion and the four-time U.S. National Champion. Known as the “Quad God,” Malinin will seek to continue the gold-medal streak of the dominant Nathan Chen, who has stepped away from figure skating in recent years. Malinin competed in both the short program and free skate during the team event this weekend, earning second place in the short and eking out first place in the free skate with a technically illustrious quad-filled program. The American team won gold on Sunday in the team competition, with outstanding performances from Malinin and the ice-dancing duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

New Event: Skimo

Ski mountaineering, or “skimo,” will be making its Olympic debut this year. Skimo is a hybrid event in which athletes ski up a mountain on specialized skis with uphill skins and then ski down, all in the span of three to four minutes. The skimo semifinals and finals will take place in the second week, with medals awarded for the men’s and women’s sprints, as well as a mixed-gender relay. France and Spain are expected to be the top contenders for the gold.

NESCAC at the Olympics

While no Amherst student or alumnus has ever competed in the Winter Olympics, there are several athletes with NESCAC ties this year in Italy.

• Rei Halloran ’23 (Wesleyan): Women’s Ice Hockey (Japan)
• Maddie Hooker ’27 (Colby): Cross-Country Skiing (Australia)
• Marta Mazzocchi ’28 (Trinity): Women’s Ice Hockey (Italy)
• Ali Nullmeyer ’24 (Middlebury): Alpine Skiing (Canada)
• Jack Young ’25 (Colby): Cross-Country Skiing (United States)
• Nikhil Alleyne ’28 (Middlebury): Alpine Skiing (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Chloe Levins ’20 (Middlebury): Biathlon Alternate (United States)

Alleyne, the first alpine skier from Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the Olympic Games, served as the flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremonies on Friday.