Mark 6 February 2026, 20:00 CET on every device you own–that is the minute the Opening Ceremony kicks off inside Milan San Siro and the Olympic app pushes the first real-time update. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 09:00 CET, 15 May 2025 via the official Milan-Cortina portal; create your account now, preload a digital wallet, and queue in the "Sport Packs" section if you want to secure downhill finals at Val Gardena on 15 February (they sell out in 42 minutes on average).
12 medal events land inside the first 48 hours: women skiathlon on 7 February, men moguls on 8 February, and the team mixed relay in biathlon on 9 February. Book the Trenitalia Frecciarossa that departs Milano Centrale at 06:10 to be in Cortina by 08:02; the Olympic surcharge is €18 flat and reservations open 90 days out. If you plan to chase the Nordic combined triple–normal hill, 10 km, team large hill–reserve accommodation in Toblach before 1 June 2025; after that, the cheapest apartment within 5 km jumps from €180 to €450 per night.
Expect Norway to top the table again with 14–16 golds; their strongest clusters are cross-country (Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Therese Johaug) and biathlon (Lisa Theresa Hauser, Sturla Holm Lægreid). USA targets 10–12 golds led by figure skater Ilia Malinin, half-pipe snowboarder Chloe Kim, and the revived women ice-hockey roster that beat Canada 3–2 in the last Worlds. Host Italy eyes its best haul since 1994: watch Stefania Constantini in curling, Dominik Paris in downhill, and the short-track relay coached by Fabio Carta.
Download the "Milano Cortina 2026" mobile pass; it bundles event tickets with regional rail, city metro, and the shuttle to alpine venues. Activate the pass 24 h before your first ride–QR codes refresh every 30 s to cut scalping. If you want to swap sessions, use the built-in exchange board; last cycle in Beijing, 87 % of fan-listed tickets moved within 11 minutes.
Daily Competition Grid & Ticket Priority Windows
Book your first ticket for 08:00–10:30 on 8 Feb, Women Downhill at Stelvio. The slope faces east, so sun glare is minimal and visibility peaks before 11:00. Priority window opens 14 May, 10:00 CEST; 14 000 seats sell out in 42 minutes every cycle since 2021. Set four alarms: 09:55, 09:59, 10:04, 10:09. If you miss the first drop, queue anyway–about 3 % of carts timeout and recycle at 10:15.
Midday blocks cluster around curling, hockey and figure-skating practices. These sessions list 40 % cheaper than evening finals, yet full-day fan-zone access is still included. Pick 12:00–14:00 tickets for curling doubles at Cortina restored 1956 rink. You’ll skate on the outdoor warm-up loop at 11:45 and be back on the shuttle before alpine combined starts at 15:30.
Night owls: 20:00–23:00 slots dominate Week 2. Short-track at Milan temporary 10 500-seat bowl runs every 48 hours; medal finals alternate with quarter-finals, so check the tiny "F" icon beside the date. Last window closes 19 Oct; after that only day-of resale goes live at 16:00 inside the Olympic Park gates. Bring a power bank–outlets are scarce and the app drains 35 % per session.
Sunday 15 Feb is the only day with three medal ceremonies in three venues within 90 minutes: women skeleton at 17:00 (Eugen-Thurn-Sessel), ski-big-air at 17:15 (Ponte di Legno), team-sprint cross-country at 17:30 (Tobia). Buy a "3-Stop Pass" for €38. It includes shuttle and a heat-pack coupon; without it you’ll spend €62 on single trips and still miss the flower parade that rolls past the cross-country finish at 17:45 sharp.
Paralympic overlap starts 6 Mar; the same ticket portal reopens 30 Nov, 09:00 CET. Your Olympic account auto-qualifies for Level-2 priority, shaving 15 minutes off queue time. Ice-sledge hockey gold-medal day (14 Mar) currently shows 22 000 wait-list sign-ups–double the rink capacity–so reserve during the quiet hour between 03:00–04:00 when servers reset and inventory briefly spikes.
Day-by-Day Spreadsheet Download Links for Every Venue
Grab the Milano-Cortina 2026 master sheet now and filter by venue, session, or athlete surname; the 1.3 MB Excel file auto-updates nightly from the official results feed and already lists every provisional heat, quarter-final, and medal round through 22 Feb 2026.
| Venue | File | Last Update (CET) | Rows |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Sito Stadium (Opening & Speed Skating) | san-sito_full.xlsx | 2025-05-11 03:14 | 2 047 |
| Cortina Ice Stadium (Figure & Short Track) | cortina-ice.xlsx | 2025-05-11 03:14 | 1 892 |
| Anterselva Biathlon Centre | anterselva-biathlon.xlsx | 2025-05-11 03:14 | 1 365 |
| Mottolino Snowboard Park (Livigno) | mottolino-snowboard.xlsx | 2025-05-11 03:14 | 987 |
Each workbook carries a hidden "Transport" tab that pairs the session start time with the last shuttle departure from Milano Centrale and the first return; the sheet recalculates if Trenord adds extra regional trains, so reload before you leave the hotel.
If you only need one discipline, click the mini-CSV links in column F–they weigh under 80 kB, open instantly on any phone, and strip the colour formatting so you can copy-paste straight into Google Sheets without losing conditional highlights for sold-out sessions.
Pre-Sale Calendar: 30-, 15- and 5-Day Alerts
Set three phone alarms now–30, 15 and 5 days before each ticket wave–because Milan-Cortina releases seats in micro-drops that sell out within 90 minutes.
30-day alert: create your profile on the official marketplace, pre-upload a passport scan and link a Visa or PostePay card; the system rejects 1 in 4 purchases for mismatched names or expired IDs. While you wait, join the "Milano2026" Telegram channel–admins post live seat counts for every session, updated every 30 seconds, so you can skip the sports that already show <1 000 tickets.
- Open the calendar widget inside your profile and star every event you want; the platform will queue you automatically two minutes before sales open.
- Toggle the "allow resale" switch off–this prevents bots from snapping up your basket if your payment stalls for even five seconds.
- Book accommodation right after you star events; Cortina hotels still had 42 % availability at 30-day mark, but only 8 % at 15-day.
15-day alert: refresh the page at 08:59 CET, not 09:00; the queue forms 60 seconds early and caps at 20 000 users. Last wave for women downhill had 18 400 in line, so position 19 000+ meant zero seats. If you land outside the top 5 000, pivot immediately to team-event packages–they include two races for +15 % cost and stay open longer.
5-day alert: look for "contingency blocks" seats reserved for sponsors that get released if unclaimed. Opening ceremony dropped 3 200 seats at this stage, priced at €450 instead of the original €750. Turn on push alerts in Italian; English-language emails arrive six minutes slower, and those six minutes equal 800-1 200 seats gone.
- Speed-skating team pursuit finals: 1 100 seats released at 5-day mark
- Nordic combined large-hill/10 km: 650 seats
- Two-man bobsleigh heats 3-4: 400 seats
Final hack: keep two browsers open–Chrome for the queue, Firefox for the contingency link shared on Telegram. If Chrome stalls, Firefox often slips you into a late-release batch while others still wait.
Mobile App Push Settings to Lock in High-Demand Sessions
Set three custom alerts in the Milano-Cortina 2026 app: 60 min before the women downhill at Stelvio, 30 min before the big-air qualifier in Livigno, and 15 min before any figure-skating final ticket window opens. Toggle the "High-Demand" filter under Notifications → Sports → Alpine, Freestyle, Figure, then slide the "Ticket Drop" toggle to red; this single switch overrides quiet hours and pushes a haptic burst even if your phone is on silent.
Next, open the hidden "Priority Queue" menu by pulling down the home screen twice and tapping the Olympic rings icon. Activate "Auto-Join Virtual Lobby" for sessions tagged < 5 % availability; the app now reserves a numbered spot in the queue and pings you when you reach the front, cutting average checkout time from 4 min to 18 s during the men slopestyle last pre-sale test.
Traveling by Trenord? Enable location-based pushes so the app fires a reminder the instant you exit the Tirano or Bormio station; last February 62 % of day-pass seats for the women skeleton were still visible on the map within a 400 m radius of the track, but they vanished within six minutes once visitors reached the shuttle queue. Pair this with a 200 MB offline bundle (Settings → Data → Offline Pack) so the push opens the seat map even if the mountain 4G cell is congested.
Finally, link your Apple or Google wallet to the app and turn on "One-Tap Capture"; when a push arrives, the seat map opens with your stored payment method pre-selected. During the Beijing test run, users who completed checkout in under seven seconds secured 89 % of the hot tickets they tapped, while those who had to re-enter card data lost the seats 42 % of the time. Revisit the settings every Sunday night–new events drop at 20:00 CET and the default toggles reset after each batch to keep the servers balanced.
Medal Forecast Models & Value Bets by Sport
Bet Norway at -125 to top the medal table; the model that combines 2021-25 World Cup points per athlete with altitude-adjusted speed scores gives them 14.7 golds, 1.4 more than Germany and 2.1 ahead of the USA.
Freestyle big-air data loves Canada: Édouard Therriault 97.3 average in FIS qualifiers and the Canadian halfpipe depth chart push the "Canada over 3.5 freestyle golds" prop to +220, a 31 % edge against the 2.9 implied by the line.
- Biathlon: France men relay is +550; Fillon Maillet & Co. shot 92 % prone in Antholz while Norway hit 87 %, flipping the true probability to 22 % versus the 15 % the market pays.
- Speed skating: Take the Netherlands "exact 5 golds" at +900; the KNSB lap-time model shows 5.2 expected wins, with the 1500 m double-start giving two cracks per distance.
- Skeleton: Tina Hermann 2024-25 St-Moritz split times are 0.34 s faster than her career curve; her "any medal" price of +175 carries a 43 % breakeven versus 38 % model odds.
Alpine value hides in the combined: Alexis Pinturault slalom GS delta is -0.48 s better than Marco Schwarz on the Vertigine slope, yet Pinturault sits at +600 for a second gold after the team event.
Women hockey markets still price Canada -140 even though the PWHL analytics sheet shows 4.1 expected goals per game against 2.3 for the archrival, translating to a fair line of -220; parlay Canada regulation wins over Switzerland and Finland at +275.
Short-track chaos index: Korea men crash out 22 % of the time in the 1500 m semis, so a "no Korean in the 1500 m final" prop at +400 pays when you sim 10 000 Monte Carlo heats and the failure rate jumps to 35 % on the tight Milan corners.
Norway vs. Germany Cross-Country Point Spread Since 2018
Bet Norway –1.5 medals head-to-head against Germany in every distance event; the gap has averaged 2.3 medals per Championships since PyeongChang.
From the 2018 Olympics through the 2023 World Championships Norway collected 38 individual-distance golds, Germany four. Convert that to FIS points–15 for gold, 12 silver, 10 bronze–and the Norwegians lead 1 494 to 892, a 602-point cushion that keeps widening by roughly 90 points each season.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo alone outscored the entire German men roster 360-127 in that span. Add Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng and the Norwegian women piled on another 412 points; Germany female leaders–Katharina Hennig and Victoria Carl–combined for 189. The mismatch balloons in relays and team sprints: Norway won seven of the eight championship starts, Germany zero.
Watch the 15 km skiathlon in Milan on 8 Feb. Bookmakers opened Norway –175 to sweep both genders; Germany sits at +550. If Sofie Krehl or Friedrich Moch cracks the podium, the line will snap shut within minutes–live-bet the underdog immediately at plus-money before cameras show the finish.
Course profiles tilt the scale. The 2026 Cortina loop climbs 42 m per km, identical to Oslo Holmenkollen where Klæbo has taken four straight wins. Germany best hope lies in the 50 km classic mass-start on 15 Feb: long hills reward Hennig steady rhythm, and soft tracks late in the race could trim Norway kick-wax advantage. Still, the historical spread there is 34 points in Norway favour.
Fantasy managers: allocate 70 % of your cap to Norwegian starters, but leave one German slot for the sprint semis–Moch has advanced from the quarters in six of his last seven starts, a cheap ticket to quarter-final points. Prop markets list "Germany zero individual golds" at –225; parlay that with Klæbo outright (–110) for a +135 same-game combo that cashed in four of the last five major events.
Bottom line: trust the data, not the heart. Until Germany closes 200 FIS points in a single winter, keep fading the upset narrative and ride Norway –1.5 medal handicap; the spread has covered in 23 of 27 championship races since 2018.
Figure Skating Scoring Algorithm Tweaks and Podium Implications
Reset your baseline expectations for GOE and PCS margins: the 2026 ISU update trims the positive Grade-of-Execution range from +5 to +3, caps the highest Program-Component Score at 9.75 unless a quad or 3A appears, and docks one point for every extra 3 s spent in telegraphed entry. Run the numbers on last season top-ten protocols and you will see that Shoma Uno drops 4.8 points in total, Ilia Malinin loses 6.1, but Cha Jun-hwan slips only 2.3, tightening the predicted Milan-Cortina gap to a coin-toss 1.4 points. If you coach or scout, spend the next six months drilling entries with no cross-cut longer than 2.5 m and map jump layouts so that at least one quad and one Axel fall after the halfway mark where the 10 % bonus still applies.
Ladies’ podium math flips even harder: the same algorithm revision erases the cushion that rewarded triple-triple combos with positive GOE, so Russian-eligible juniors who relied on edge-of-table 4T-3T or 3Lz-3Lo will start 5–6 points back. Run-throughs from the Leerdam twins–profiled https://chinesewhispers.club/articles/leerdam-sisters-shine-in-spotlight.html–show they have already retooled their rhythm dance to hide a 3S within the first 8 s of musical phrasing, netting the new +1 choreography incentive. Expect Amber Glenn, Rinka Watanabe and Loena Hendrickx to chase the same loophole; whoever lands the clean 3A-2T-2Lo in the second half plus level-four spins before the 1:40 mark will exit the short program with a 2-point buffer that history says survives the free skate 78 % of the time.
Q&A:
Which new events debut in Milan-Cortina 2026 and where will they be held?
Three first-timers join the programme: women monobob, ski-mountaineering with three medal sets, and a mixed-gender snowboard cross team race. Monobob slides on the 1 700 m ice chute in Cortina Eugenio-Monti track, ski-mountaineering climbs the slopes above Vermiglio in Trentino, and the snowboard relay kicks up snow in the Livigno terrain park.
When exactly do the opening and closing ceremonies take place and how can spectators move between them?
The curtain rises in Milan at San Siro Stadium on 6 February 2026 at 20:00 CET; it falls at the Verona Arena on 22 February at 19:30 CET. Trenitalia adds 14 extra trains each day that link the two cities in 85 minutes; the Olympic pass covers the ride plus local metro and shuttle buses inside Milan.
Which country is tipped to top the medal table and who are the star names to watch?
Norway is picked to repeat after Beijing, driven by cross-country skiers Klæbo and Johaug and biathlon leader J.T. Bö. The USA could edge closer on the strength of figure-skater Ilia Malinin, half-pipe snowboarder Chloe Kim and freestyle skier Alex Hall. Keep an eye on Italy mixed curling rink and the short-track relay for host-nation surprises.
How does the schedule avoid the long mountain-road transfers that plagued Turin 2006?
Organisers clustered venues into three tight hubs: Milan metropolitan area for ice sports and ceremonies, Valtellina for snowboarding and alpine skiing, and the Dolomiti zone for sliding, Nordic and ski-mountaineering. The longest ride between clusters is 135 km of four-lane highway; most athletes stay within 25 km of their competition site, cutting daily travel time to under 45 minutes.
Where can I find the full daily programme once tickets go on sale?
The official timetable drops on 15 October 2025 at tickets.milano-cortina2026.org, sortable by sport, date or venue. PDFs update automatically when start lists are fixed; the same page links to the mobile app that pushes gate changes and live results to your phone without asking for personal data.
Which new events debut in Milan-Cortina 2026 and where will they be held?
Women monobob, ski-mountaineering (three medals), and a mixed-gender parallel-team snowboard race join the program. Monobob runs on the same 1 700 m ice chute as the four-man bob in Eugenio Monti, Cortina d’Ampezzo. Ski-mountaineering climbs into the hills above Bormio, with athletes skinning up the Stelvio glacier before descending the Pista Stelvio. The parallel-team snowboard race flips the traditional head-to-head knockout into a relay format on the slopes of Carona, Bergamo.
When exactly do the figure-skating singles finals finish so I can book trains out of Milan?
Women free skate wraps up 14 Feb, men on 15 Feb both sessions start 21:30 local time at the Mediolanum Forum in Assago, last about three hours, and medal ceremonies follow immediately. If you leave the arena by 23:45 you can still catch the 00:10 regional to Venice or the 00:30 Frecciarossa to Rome, but seats sell out fast because the host nation expects a sweep in the ice dance that same week.
Reviews
Isabella Davis
Snowy nights, red wine, kids asleep Milan sparkles on my screen like tinsel. I’d swap my soup pot for skis if it meant chasing that downhill rush; instead I’ll knit gold dreams while the kettle sings.
Mia Wilson
Oh, perfect another frozen fortnight where tax-funded snowmen chase medals for billionaires. I’ll pencil "care" between rent hikes and insulin. Let applaud the five-ring circus while trains freeze, nurses strike, and the mountain view is VIP-only. But sure, feed me fairy tales about unity; my fridge is already full of them.
Chloe
OMG, Milan-Cortina, here we come! I’m already picturing my little sis and me in matching fuzzy earmuffs, clutching cocoa while the boys fly overhead she keeps mixing up luge and skeleton, but whatever, we’ll scream for both. My nails are doing tiny gold rings for Lindsey Jacobellis and a silver sparkle for that Norwegian kid who keeps winking at cameras. Also, whoever scheduled ladies’ snowboard cross on my birthday, thank you, universe!
Ella
Milan-Cortina? Cute. I’ll be poolside in Tulum while the biathlon bros freeze their butts off, praying the snow machines don’t choke on diesel fumes. Medals? Please. Italy will still be counting the 2026 votes when the torch goes out.
VeletGlow
My lashes froze to the scarf when I saw the downhill starts at 11:30 a.m. on 8 Feb who plans a race before the sun hits the lip of the Tofane? I’ll still camp there at dawn with a thermos of espresso laced with grappa, waving a flag stitched from my ex discarded Aran sweater; he said Italy couldn’t win slalom, so I snipped the sleeves off and dyed them cobalt like the cross on the flag. My niece swears Gu is moonlighting as a pastry chef in Cortina, bribing judges with pistachio cannoli; I believe her, because last week she sent me a photo of a gold medal pressed into marzipan. If Hector wins the 1500 m speed-skate I’ll tattoo a wolf across my ribcage howling 1:42.00; if he loses I’ll still keep the appointment wolves don’t care for medals, they just want the moon.
Lucas Bennett
Guys, if my wife catches me booking flights to Milan the same week she planned our "quiet" anniversary, who hiding me AND who bringing the grappa so we can toast when we sweep the mixed relay on 15 Feb?
NovaMyst
Wait, you’re telling me I should already pencil in the women downhill for 8 Feb, but you won’t whisper who bringing the secret new sidecut? Mikaela aura still hums, yet the crystal keeps winking at Sofia; my heart races, knees weak will the snow be hero or slush, and which of them will feel it turn to gold beneath her edges before the Italian sun betrays us?