The Winter Olympics 2026 in Milano–Cortina bring one of the most packed and carefully balanced sports programmes in Winter Games history. The event is scheduled to feature 116 medal events spread across 16 disciplines, with more competitions, more variety and a clear commitment to gender balance. The sports schedule blends traditional alpine competitions, dynamic freestyle and snowboarding events, precision ice sports and high-speed sliding disciplines.
A major highlight of this edition is the record level of women’s participation, expected to reach 47% of all athletes. Alongside that, several new events and adjusted formats give the programme a fresh, modern feel while still respecting the core character of winter sports.
This guide walks through the main Winter Olympics 2026 sports events, focusing on new medal events, format changes and the overall list of disciplines and medal counts.
Overview of the Winter Olympics 2026 Sports Programme
The sports at Milano–Cortina are organised into three broad groups:
- Snow sports – alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined, freestyle skiing, snowboarding and ski mountaineering.
- Ice sports – figure skating, speed skating, short-track speed skating, ice hockey and curling.
- Sliding sports – bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.
Within these groups, the official programme includes 116 medal events. The number of disciplines remains 16, but the event list has been adjusted with new medal opportunities, updated team formats and one completely new discipline added to the Winter Games.
Sports and Medal Events at Winter Olympics 2026
The table below lists all 16 disciplines included in the Winter Olympics 2026 and the number of medal events scheduled in each, based on the official programme. Numbers in parentheses match the figures commonly associated with each discipline for Milano–Cortina.
Winter Olympics 2026 Sports and Medal Counts
| Sport / Discipline | Medal Events | Notes on the 2026 Programme |
|---|---|---|
| Alpine skiing | 10 | Includes men’s and women’s team alpine combined |
| Biathlon | 11 | Mix of individual, pursuit, relay and mass-start formats |
| Bobsleigh | 4 | Team-based sliding events on the ice track |
| Cross-country skiing | 12 | Equal race distances for women and men |
| Curling | 3 | Men’s, women’s and mixed doubles tournaments |
| Figure skating | 5 | Multiple medal events combining technique and artistic performance |
| Freestyle skiing | 15 | Expanded list including men’s and women’s dual moguls |
| Ice hockey | 2 | Separate men’s and women’s tournaments |
| Luge | 5 | Men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, team relay |
| Nordic combined | 3 | Includes two-person team events with large hill / 2 x 7.5 km format |
| Short-track speed skating | 9 | Multiple sprint distances and relays on the short oval |
| Skeleton | 3 | Men’s, women’s and mixed relay events |
| Ski jumping | 6 | Includes new women’s large hill individual and team formats |
| Ski mountaineering | 3 | Debut discipline with sprints and mixed relay |
| Snowboarding | 11 | Range of race and freestyle-style events |
| Speed skating | 14 | Long-track disciplines across several distances |
This structure gives a clear picture of how the 116 medal events are distributed and how strongly the programme leans into variety and mixed formats.
Follow the Full Winter Olympics 2026 Schedule here.
New and Updated Events at Milano–Cortina 2026
Several disciplines have been reshaped for 2026. These changes are not cosmetic; they adjust how athletes prepare, how teams are selected and how fans follow the programme.
Dual moguls in freestyle skiing
Freestyle skiing expands with men’s and women’s dual moguls. In dual moguls, two skiers race side by side down bump-filled slopes, judged on speed, technique and aerial elements. Adding separate men’s and women’s dual moguls increases the total number of freestyle medal events and brings another head-to-head format into the Games.
Team alpine combined and removal of mixed team parallel
In alpine skiing, the programme has been updated in two important ways:
- The alpine mixed team parallel event has been dropped from the schedule.
- Alpine combined changes from an individual event to two-person team alpine combined.
In the new team format, each nation combines downhill strength with slalom skill by pairing athletes who specialise in different aspects of alpine racing. This change reflects how training has become more specialised in recent years and keeps the combined concept relevant in a modern programme.
Changes in team formats for jumping and Nordic combined
Both team ski jumping and Nordic combined adopt two-person team formats for Milano–Cortina. Nordic combined, in particular, will use a large hill / 2 x 7.5 km structure, maintaining the traditional link between ski jumping and cross-country skiing while keeping the race compact and intense.
Equal race distances in cross-country skiing
For the first time at a Winter Games, women will race the same distances as men in cross-country skiing. This step simplifies the programme, makes it easier to compare performances and underlines the broader push toward equal treatment of endurance events for men and women.
New women’s large hill event in ski jumping
Ski jumping continues to evolve with the addition of women’s large hill individual as a medal event. Previously, women mainly competed on the normal hill at the Games. The inclusion of a large hill competition recognises the development of women’s ski jumping and expands the list of events available to female jumpers.
Updated doubles events in luge
In luge, doubles racing returns in a clearer format:
- Men’s doubles
- Women’s doubles
These replace the previous open doubles event. With this change, doubles competition is now fully aligned with the rest of the programme, where men and women have distinct medal events.
Skeleton mixed relay
Skeleton introduces a mixed relay team event. Each relay team combines one man and one woman, with times from both runs added together to decide final rankings. This event puts an extra spotlight on teamwork and consistent performance across multiple slides, rather than only on isolated individual runs.
Ski mountaineering as a new discipline
One of the most eye-catching additions to the Winter Olympics 2026 sports events is ski mountaineering, which makes its debut as an optional sport on the programme. It includes three medal events:
- Men’s sprint
- Women’s sprint
- Mixed relay
Ski mountaineering combines climbing, technical descents and fast transitions on and off skis. Its arrival brings a different mountain flavour to the Games compared with piste-based alpine and cross-country competitions.
Ice Hockey and NHL Player Participation
Ice hockey remains one of the flagship events of the Winter Games. For 2026, an agreement announced in early 2024 allows players from the National Hockey League (NHL) to participate in the men’s Olympic tournament for the first time since 2014. This restores a familiar structure in which many of the top professional players appear for their national teams.
Alongside the men’s event, the women’s ice hockey tournament continues as a key part of the programme, giving another major stage for the best women’s teams in the world.
Snow Sports: From Alpine Speed to Ski Mountaineering
Snow sports form the backbone of the Winter Olympics 2026 sports events.
- Alpine skiing showcases speed and technical control on steep slopes, with the updated team combined format tying together downhill and slalom strengths.
- Cross-country skiing highlights endurance and pacing, and the move to equal distances for women and men makes the event list more straightforward and balanced.
- Ski jumping and Nordic combined continue to blend jumping ability and cross-country strength, now with streamlined two-person team competitions and, for Nordic combined, the large hill / 2 x 7.5 km format.
- Freestyle skiing and snowboarding add high-energy, trick-based events, with dual moguls bringing an extra head-to-head dimension to freestyle.
- Ski mountaineering introduces a discipline rooted in climbing and descending in the high mountains, giving a different style of endurance racing on snow.
Together, these disciplines cover almost every way athletes can move on snow: straight-line speed, sustained endurance, aerial skills, technical turns and backcountry-inspired racing.
Ice and Sliding Sports: Precision, Speed and Strategy
On ice, the programme combines grace, tactics and raw speed.
- Figure skating offers multiple medal events built around choreography, jumps and spins.
- Speed skating and short-track speed skating test power and race tactics across a range of distances.
- Curling balances technical precision with patient strategy in round-robin and knockout formats.
- Ice hockey remains one of the loudest, most closely followed parts of the Games, especially with NHL participation returning to the men’s tournament.
In the sliding disciplines:
- Bobsleigh, skeleton and luge deliver some of the fastest runs of the Games.
- The updated men’s and women’s doubles in luge and the new skeleton mixed relay expand how teams can combine athletes and skills.
These sports highlight how finely tuned equipment, body position and timing can be the difference between a medal and missing the podium by hundredths of a second.
Gender Balance and Mixed Events
A defining feature of the Winter Olympics 2026 sports events is the emphasis on gender balance. The expected 47% women’s participation rate is supported by concrete programme changes:
- Addition of women’s large hill individual in ski jumping.
- Return and reshaping of women’s doubles in luge.
- Equal race distances for women and men in cross-country skiing.
- Growth in mixed-gender events, such as skeleton mixed relay, ski mountaineering mixed relay and other mixed formats in the wider programme.
These shifts do not simply add events; they reshape how teams are built and how athletes plan their careers, making the Winter Games more balanced and inclusive.
Conclusion
The Winter Olympics 2026 sports events combine tradition and change in a way that suits a modern Games. With 116 medal events, 16 disciplines, new formats, a debut sport and a record share of women’s participation, Milano–Cortina delivers a programme that is wide, varied and clearly structured.
For anyone preparing coverage, building a viewing guide or simply trying to follow the action, understanding these disciplines, medal counts and key updates makes it much easier to navigate the full schedule when the cauldron is lit and the competitions begin.