The Winter Olympics will return in 2026 in a place known for its mountain snow. But the way the event is organized worries some skiers.
The Beijing Winter Olympics will end early Sunday morning when the Olympic flame is extinguished and the world bids farewell. But before that, a question was already in vogue on Google on Saturday evening: where will the next one be held?
Hosts are determined years in advance. And after the last three Olympics – winter and summer combined – were held in East Asia, the Games are returning to Europe.
Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics followed 18 months later by the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy – officially dubbed Milano-Cortina – starting February 6, 2026.
When are the Olympics every two years?
From 1924 to 1992, the Winter and Summer Olympics were held in the same year. The 1992 Winter Games were celebrated in Albertville, France, followed by the Summer Games in Barcelona.
Since 1994, the Olympic Games have been held every two years. The 1994 Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway, followed by the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. Nagano, Japan was next in 1998 with the Winter Games.
This pattern was broken by the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Six months later, the Beijing Winter Games began.
Why have the Olympics been moved every two years?
Olympic historian Bill Mallon suggests that the International Olympic Committee was looking for more revenue. The IOC, he says, “thought it could get more sponsorship money by broadcasting the Games more”.
Every two years, the Olympics have also kept the public’s attention, and this move has been accompanied by the increasing commercialization and professionalization of the Games. The trend intensified when, for the first time, professional basketball players from the NBA – the American Dream Team – were the stars of Barcelona.
Men’s and women’s alpine skiing in 2026 will take place at different locations
Several European skiers – including two leading Italians – have reservations about the organization of the Milan-Cortina Games.
The 2026 Games will be the most widespread Olympic Games of all time, with venues spread over almost 10,000 square miles across a vast stretch of northern Italy – from the regions of Lombardy and Veneto to the provinces of Trento and from Bolzano.
“There will be no Olympic spirit,” said three-time Olympic medalist Federica Brignone this week after her bronze in the giant slalom, before winning another bronze in the alpine combined.
“Everyone will be in their own corner. It’s good to take advantage of existing structures and not consume and build new rooms; from an ecological point of view it will be much better,” added Brignone. “But in terms of the Olympic atmosphere, I don’t know how it will be but I don’t think it will be very pleasant.”
The 2026 organizers have taken heed of IOC President Thomas Bach’s reform plan, Agenda 2020, which allows for more flexible offers that take advantage of existing infrastructure, even if this means using venues away from the main city of Games.
Hockey, figure skating and short track speed skating will take place in Milan in 2026; cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined in Val di Fiemme; long track speed skating at Baselga di Pine; snowboarding and freestyle in Livigno; biathlon in Anterselva; men’s skiing in Bormio; and women’s skiing, sliding and curling in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The alpine skiing split between Bormio and Cortina will keep the men and women, respectively, divided by a five-hour drive that includes a detour into Switzerland as the most direct route is over closed mountain passes in winter.
“I don’t like it,” Norwegian skier Lucas Braathen said. “It’s so cool to have everyone in one place. I’m here to make new foreign friends and to see all types of culture, and then they divide us.
Construction delays are also an issue. A century-old sliding track in Cortina must be completely rebuilt at a cost of almost 60 million dollars. Work has not yet started, although the Veneto region presented a plan for the reconstruction of the track in December.
At Baselga, the renovation work on the outdoor speed skating track, again, has not started.
Likewise, the more than $1 billion earmarked for improving roads and railways, as well as other infrastructure, has mostly gone unused.
“We are far behind,” organizing committee president Giovanni Malago, who is also president of the Italian Olympic Committee, said in November.
A new mayor of Turin has shown interest in hosting speed skating on the existing inner ring built for the 2006 Games – if Baselga doesn’t work.
After Milano Cortina, the Olympics return to the United States for the first time in 26 years as Los Angeles hosts the Summer Games. LA last hosted in 1984.
A host city for the 2030 Winter Olympics has yet to be determined, but Salt Lake City is reportedly in the running. It hosted the 2002 Winter Games.
Brisbane, Australia will host the 2032 Summer Olympics.
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