Winter Olympics 2026, the countdown for Milan-Cortina has started: a thousand days to go

The Olympic countdown marks another crucial stage: today there are exactly 1,000 days left until the Milan Cortina Games. The celebrations to celebrate today’s anniversary began yesterday in the places that from 6 to 22 February 2026 will host the twenty-fifth five-circle winter event (the third in the Italian mountains after Cortina 1956 and Turin 2006): Milan, Cortina, Bormio, Livigno, Anterselva and the Val di Fiemme.

In the Lombard capital, yesterday morning, over 10,000 boys and girls gathered at the Brera Arena for the final of the “Milan 2023 Trophies – Education, Culture and Sport for Youth”, in the presence of the Minister of Sport Andrea Abodi . Epilogue of an event organized in collaboration with the FICTS – Fédération Internationale Cinéma Télévision Sportifs by the President Prof. Franco Ascani, the only Italian Member of the Commission for Culture and Olympic Heritage of the International Olympic Committee, which for the entire duration of the school year saw 41,965 students from 98 schools (31,965 young people from 59 schools in Milan and 10,000 from 29 in the Veneto region) in various activities, divided into a sports and an educational phase.

The countdown on the Milano-Cortina website

In Cortina d’Ampezzo, the streets of the historic center were filled with over 600 boys and girls wearing Milano Cortina 2026 T-shirts. In Bormio and Livigno, a thousand very young people dialed the number 1000, against the backdrop of the Valtellina mountains. Furthermore, real «Mini Olympics» have been organized in Bormio to have fun in the name of sport. And again, in Val di Fiemme, secondary school pupils experienced this special day together with the local Olympic athletes: the combined skiers Alessandro Pittin and Iacopo Bortolas entered the classes of Predazzo and Tesero to talk about the great project of the Games. In Anterselva, all the young people involved were given t-shirts branded with the Milano Cortina 2026 institutional logos and the image of the #menomillegiorni initiative.

«A thousand days until the brazier of the 2026 Games is lit is an exciting and challenging passage. From the beginning of the adventure, Milano Cortina 2026 wanted to embrace territories and people, to make the Games the project of the whole of Italy. The goal is to allow everyone to participate in the Olympic and Paralympic adventure and to enhance and accelerate projects around sport”, said Giovanni Malagò, President of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation.

The XIV Winter Paralympics (second in Italy after Turin 2006) will be held the following month, from 6 to 15 March 2026. «The Olympics and the Paralympics are a great challenge, but I am convinced – commented Andrea Varnier, CEO of the Organizing Committee of Milano Cortina 2026 – that Italy has all the credentials to organize a unique edition. Let’s bring the Winter Games back to their natural cradle, the Alps, directly and actively involving all territories starting from the youngest. The concept of a widespread Olympics is one of the strengths of Milano Cortina 2026 and the enthusiasm of the next generations will be fundamental in this process of approaching the 2026 appointment”.

Today, the Italian Embassy in the French capital hosts the CONI press conference in view of Paris 2024, which will be attended by the President of CONI and of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation Giovanni Malagò, with the presentation of Casa Italia for the next Games summer. A delegation from the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, led by the Chief Executive Officer Andrea Varnier, will be present for the occasion.