The one-year countdown to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics is on. IOC president Thomas Bach proclaimed on Thursday, “Italy is ready.” Is it? Italy has ski resorts in abundance and spectacular mountains but one pressing concern remains rebuilding the century-old sliding center in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Italy began the one-year countdown to the Winter Olympics on Thursday with a series of events designed to fuel enthusiasm for the Games that will be co-hosted by Milan and the Alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Swiss Alpine Skier Lara Gut-Behrami revealed she never thought she would make it to the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics after an injury-laden period.

Alpine skiing will be divided between Cortina (for the women’s events) and Bormio (for the men) — which are separated by a 5 ½-hour drive. Livigno will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, biathlon will be in Anterselva, Nordic events will be in Val di Fiemme and ice sports in Milan.

Sochi’s media village was still under construction, and showers ran yellow when journalists arrived for the 2014 Winter Games. The 2016 Rio

Olympic curling champion Eve Muirhead believes Milan-Cortina 2026 will be a mix of the Winter Games’ past and future as it combines alpine resort settings with a wide geographic spread of existing venues to keep costs down.

Next year’s Olympics might be called the Milan Cortina Games but it will actually be staged across a large swath of northern Italy spread over five different venue clusters.

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All you need to know about the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, including where exactly it is taking place, when it starts, the new events, and the stars taking part.

Italy marked the one-year countdown to the Winter Olympics on Thursday with a series of events designed to fuel enthusiasm for the Games that will be co-hosted by Milan and the Alpine town of Cortina d'Ampezzo.