MILAN, February 5. /TASS/. The 25th edition of the Winter Olympic Games kicks off this week in Italy, marking the first Games in Olympic history to be held in two cities, which this year will take place in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. An interesting note about these Olympics is that 90% of the sports competitions will be hosted by well-established venues, not brand new ones as are usually built ahead of the events.
The Olympic competitions already started on February 4 in curling mixed doubles but they were marred by problems with lighting. The women’s ice hockey tournament and qualifying for men’s Big Air snowboard started on February 5. The team competitions in figure skating are scheduled to begin on February 6, the day of the official Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
On the docket in Milan will be competitions in ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating and short track, as well as the Opening Ceremony, which will take place at the San Siro football arena. This grand stadium is home to two Italian top-tier football clubs - Milan FC and Inter FC.
The official Opening Ceremony is scheduled to start at 8:26 p.m. (20:26 in European time) local time on Friday (7:26 p.m. GMT) in honor of the year 2026. The official closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will take place in Italy’s northern city of Verona, where a special amphitheater has been set up for it. For the first time since the 1984 Olympics, the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics will be hosted at different venues. It takes more than an hour to get to Verona from Milan by train, about five hours to travel between Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, and approximately two hours between Milan and Val di Fiemme, where the ski competitions will be held.
