How Can I Watch The 2026 Winter Olympics? Schedule, Times, Watch Guide

A general view of the Olympic rings in front of the Olympia delle Tofane ski run during Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games – 1 Year To Go event on February 06, 2025 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

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The first events of the 2026 Winter Olympics are just over two weeks away, with the Opening Ceremony to officially kick off the festivities on February 6, 2026.

Once the Olympics get underway, events will run through February 22, with the Closing Ceremony concluding the Milano Cortina Games and handing off the torch to France, host nation of the French Alps 2030 Winter Olympics.

Like the Paris 2024 Games, the time difference between Milan and Eastern Daylight Time is six hours, meaning there will be plenty of daytime programming for North American viewers, both in primetime on NBC as well as on demand on Peacock. International viewers will be able to tune in on services like HBO Max, the BBC and more.

Below you’ll find everything you need to know to watch the Milano Cortina 2026 Games, as well as what events to tune in for and which athletes to watch.

2026 Winter Olympics Dates

Though the Opening Ceremony in Milan is on Friday, February 6, the earliest competitions begin on February 4.

The Closing Ceremony is February 22, the same day as the final events, which includes the men’s ice hockey gold medal game. There are medal events on every day of the Games between February 7 and 22.

The full schedule for every sport can be found here.

Sports at the 2026 Winter Olympics

There are 16 sports represented at the Milano Cortina Games, including alpine skiing; biathlon; bobsleigh; cross-country skiing; curling; figure skating; freestyle skiing; ice hockey; luge, Nordic combined; short track speed skating; skeleton; ski jumping; ski mountaineering; snowboard and speed skating.

Among these 16 sports, there are 116 medal events.

Ski mountaineering makes its debut at Milano Cortina 2026, with events held at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, Italy.

With 15 event venues spread out over more than 10,ooo square miles, these are the most geographically widespread Games to ever be staged.

How to Watch the Winter Olympics

Opening and Closing Ceremonies

NBC and Peacock will have live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, February 6, beginning at 2 p.m. ET, with primetime coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

NBCU will also broadcast the Opening and Closing Ceremonies live in the U.S.

Competitions and Medal Events

In the U.S., all competitions can be streamed live on Peacock, which will also have full-event replays, clips and more.

Every day, NBC will have at least five hours of daytime coverage for select events, including live finals coverage of skiing, snowboarding, hockey, speed skating, figure skating and more.

NBCU’s live coverage of qualifying and medal rounds coverage will be presented on USA Network and CNBC.

CNBC, the traditional home of curling, will provide coverage on the weekends and weekdays once its business day programming concludes.

The full schedule of events with times and channels/streaming information for U.S. viewers can be found here. The full list of broadcasters in every country can be found here.

U.S. Athletes to Watch

Team USA is sending 232 athletes to the Milano Cortina Games, including 98 returning Olympians and 33 Olympic medalists. It’s the largest U.S. Winter Olympics contingent ever.

Many of these returning medalists are favorites to make the podium once again, but plenty of Olympic rookies are in position to do so as well. Here are the athletes and storylines to watch.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates (Figure Skating)

There are few ice dance milestones that husband-and-wife team Madison Chock and Evan Bates haven’t achieved. They’ve won Olympic gold, in the team event at Beijing 2022. The pair has won three consecutive world titles. This month, with their seventh national title (fifth consecutive), they became the most decorated ice dance team in U.S. history. But one accolade missing from their long list of achievements is Olympic ice dance gold, having finished just off the podium in fourth in Beijing. They have a strong shot at claiming that medal too in Milan.

Alex Hall (Freeskiing)

The defending freeski slopestyle gold medalist, Alex Hall is looking not only to defend his title but to land on the podium in big air as well. The 27-year-old has more than a dozen World Cup podium finishes and two Crystal Globes to his name, one in big air (2023-24) and one in slopestyle (2024-25). He is as comfortable hitting rails and other urban features in video parts as he is throwing spins and flips off the big air jump, making him able to do just about anything on skis.

Chloe Kim (Snowboarding)

Halfpipe snowboarding has been an Olympic event since the 1998 Nagano Games. No woman has ever won three consecutive halfpipe gold medals; Chloe Kim has a strong chance to be the first. She followed up her breakout Olympic gold in 2018 with a dominant performance at Beijing 2022. Though she has never landed it at the Olympics, she is one of the only women with a 1260 (three and a half rotations) in her bag of tricks. Kim tore her labrum in early January but has been cleared to compete in Livigno.

Ilia Malinin (Figure Skating)

It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to challenge Ilia Malinin at the Milano Cortina Games; he is undefeated for more than two years, with two world championships, two Grand Prix Final championships and three U.S. national championships under his belt. Tune in to see him go for gold; stay for the quadruple Axel, which no one else has ever landed.

Mikaela Shiffrin (Alpine Skiing)

The winningest alpine skier of all time, Shiffrin set the new record with her 87th World Cup win in March 2023, and comes into the Milano Cortina Games with more than 100. This will be Shiffrin’s fourth consecutive Olympic appearance since Sochi 2014; her three medals were earned at those Games (slalom gold) as well as at Pyeongchang 2018 (giant slalom gold; super combined silver). Shiffrin competed at six events at Beijing 2022 but didn’t land on any podiums. In Cortina, she will focus on giant slalom, slalom, and team combined events, as a gold medal favorite in slalom.

Jordan Stolz (Speed Skating)

Jordan Stolz is coming into Milan on a high note; in the final World Cup race of the season before the Olympics get underway, he won four medals (two gold, two silver). The Wisconsin native has competed in one other Olympics (Beijing 2022) but is looking for his first medal. He may come home with up to four of them; the 21-year-old will compete in the 500-meter, 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter and mass start, and is a gold-medal favorite in all four.

Lindsey Vonn (Alpine Skiing)

After coming out of retirement ahead of the 2024 season, Lindsey Vonn, 41, has qualified for her fifth Olympics and her first since Pyeongchang 2018. She has three medals, downhill gold and bronze at Vancouver 2010 and Pyeongchang 2018, respectively, and bronze in super-G at Vancouver 2010. Vonn is the only American woman to win Olympic gold in downhill and the last woman to earn a medal in super-G.

Winter Olympics Tickets

The 2026 Winter Olympics ticket draw opened on April 8, 2025. While many sessions have sold out, some are still available on the official ticketing website. The official Fan26 page will have to-the-moment updates on ticket availability.

The Tickets MilanoCortina2026 ticketing app also has a resale platform where fans can buy or sell tickets or transfer them to different attendees.

Another way to view the Olympic event is through one of On Location’s hospitality packages. Prices vary for Winter Olympics packages, which include tickets to a given session and access to different tiers of hospitality venues.