Winter Olympics: All you need to know to blag your way through it

What’s happening?

The 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in northern Italy. About 2,900 athletes representing more than 90 National Olympic Committees, including Ireland, are set to take part in 116 events across 16 disciplines in eight sports.

When is it?

The opening ceremony will take place on Friday at Milan’s San Siro Stadium – as a fun aside, that’s why Ireland and France are opening the Six Nations on Thursday rather than Friday. However, because the schedule is so packed, some events in Alpine skiing, luge and curling kicked off on Wednesday, with ice hockey to begin on Thursday.

The Games will continue over the next fortnight, followed by the closing ceremony on Sunday, February 22^nd in Verona.

How are there so many events from just eight sports?

Aside from there being separate categories based on men/women/mixed, individual/team and team size, many also have separate events for specific disciplines within the sport.

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Take freestyle snowboarding for example, which has three events – the halfpipe, big air and slopestyle.

The eight sports (some of which are further broken down into disciplines) are biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, skiing and ski mountaineering.

Within bobsleigh there are (the slightly unhelpfully named) bobsleigh (feet-first) and skeleton (headfirst) events; skating encompasses figure, speed and short-track speedskating; and skiing covers alpine, cross-country and freestyle skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and snowboarding.

Where are the events taking place?

The events will largely take place in Milan and Cortina, a winter resort in the Dolomites region of the Alps. However, some of the competitions will take place in other parts of northeast Italy, such as Livigno, Predazzo and Antholz-Anterselva.

Will there be any Irish athletes competing?

Four athletes make up Team Ireland this time out.

Anabelle Zurbay and Cormac Comerford will both compete in Alpine skiing, Thomas Maloney Westgård in cross-country skiing, and Ben Lynch in the freestyle skiing halfpipe.

[ From Kilternan ski slope to Milano Cortina, Cormac Comerford completes his long journey to the Winter OlympicsOpens in new window ]

When are they in action?

Saturday, February 7^th – Comerford, downhill (Alpine skiing), 11.20am to 12.55pm

Sunday, February 8^th – Maloney Westgård, 10km + 10km skiathlon (cross-country), 11.20am to 12.55pm

Wednesday, February 11^th – Comerford, super-G (Alpine skiing), 10.20am to 12.45pm

Friday, February 13^th – Maloney Westgård, 10km free (cross-country), 10.35am to 12.45pm

Saturday, February 14^th – Comerford, giant slalom run 1 & 2 (Alpine skiing), 8.50am to 11.05am & 12.20pm to 2.10pm

Sunday, February 15^th – Zurbay, giant slalom run 1 & 2 (Alpine skiing), 8.50am to 11.05am & 12.20pm to 2.10pm

Monday, February 16^th – Comerford, slalom run 1 & 2 (Alpine skiing), 8.50am to 11.05am & 12.20pm to 2.10pm

Wednesday, February 18^th – Zurbay, slalom run 1 & 2 (Alpine skiing), 8.50am to 11.05am & 12.20pm to 2.10pm

Thursday, February 19^th – Lynch, halfpipe qualification (freestyle skiing), 9.25am to 11.30am

Friday, February 20^th – Lynch, halfpipe final (freestyle skiing), 9.25am to 11.30am

Saturday, February 21^st – Maloney Westgård, 50km classic (cross-country), 9.50am to 1pm

What are the events I should look out for?

New to the agenda at Milan-Cortina will be ski mountaineering, or skimo. Athletes trek up the mountain to then race back down, following a course on the descent.

[ Figure skater’s against-the-odds Olympic qualification a fitting tribute to late parentsOpens in new window ]

For any Heated Rivalry fans planning to tune into the ice hockey, Team USA and Canada are the favourites to battle it out for gold. Players from the NHL (that’s the National Hockey, not Hurling League) did not compete at the 2022 Games in Beijing due to the Covid pandemic, so the restoration of those players will likely have a bearing on results.

If you feel like questioning other people’s life choices, the skeleton might be worth a watch. Athletes sled headfirst down a 1,200-1,650-metre track, hitting speeds of up to 140km/h using only their body weight to steer.

Where can I watch the action?

The Games will be shown on the RTÉ Player and Discovery+, while the BBC will have coverage on TV and the iPlayer. The opening and closing ceremonies will also be televised on the RTÉ News Channel.