From 6 to 22 February 2026, the Olympic flame will once more burn brightly in Italy. Seventy years after Cortina d’Ampezzo first hosted the Winter Games, the resort in the Dolomites has joined forces with Milan to stage Italy’s fourth edition of the Games. After a summer appearance in Rome in 1960 and a winter visit to Turin in 2006, the Olympic Winter Games are back in the Italian Alps – at the heart of the mountain range where the Winter Olympic story began, with the first edition of the Games in Chamonix in 1924.

While the Games in 1956 made Cortina d’Ampezzo famous worldwide, its reputation as a winter sports capital actually dates from the 1930s. And that was no coincidence.

The 1956 attempt was successful.

Located at the heart of the Tofane mountain group in the majestic Dolomites, the resort played a pioneering role in the development of winter sports in northern Italy.

Like Chamonix, its French counterpart, and St Moritz in Switzerland, host of the second Olympic Winter Games in 1928, it focused on glamour and was already attracting wealthy tourists at the end of the 19th century – initially during the summer months. For this iconic Alpine trio (Cortina, Chamonix and St Moritz), tourism and the growth of winter sports formed a winning combination in the decades that followed.

“Alpine skiing, bobsleigh and curling were then the preserve of aristocrats and so were perfectly suited to the atmosphere of these chic resorts,” explains Grégory Quin, a historian at the University of Lausanne’s Institute of Sports Sciences. “The bobsleigh track in St Moritz, which opened on 1 January 1904, is the world’s oldest, and was built exclusively for tourists, especially British visitors with a taste for speed.” The run starts in the gardens of the Kulm Hotel, right next to the stadium built for the 1928 Games.

Dozens of bobsleigh tracks were built around the luxury hotels of the chic Swiss resort, while Cortina’s hotels offered their clients curling and ice rinks. In their constant search for new features to attract customers in a context of strong competition between regions, the Alpine hoteliers had to get involved in developing sports – for example, by organising bobsleigh or skiing competitions.

“Bobsleigh, a historic Olympic sport present since the first edition in Chamonix in 1924, demonstrates the process of hybridisation between the needs of tourism and sport that have been shaping the Winter Games for more than a century,” says Quin.

“The Games allowed tracks to be created and to institutionalise the practice of bobsleigh, which helped the sport to grow.”

Northern Italy was no exception, as seen in the “Queen of the Dolomites”, which was a leader in this regard: Cortina was soon organising the two-man bobsleigh world championships (1937) followed by the four-man bobsleigh world championships (1939), after the first four-man edition that took place in Caux (Switzerland) in 1930.

Aware of what was at stake, the Italian resort positioned itself as one of the main venues for the sport during the first decades of the competition, with the Italian ice track also hosting the championships in 1950 and 1954. It then achieved Olympic status in 1956 and went on to host a total of nine world championships between 1937 and 1989.

After the first Alpine skiing world championships, held in Mürren (Switzerland) in 1931, Cortina hosted the second edition the following year, enabling it to become an iconic venue for the sport, which grew exponentially in the decades that followed. Ten years later, amid the Second World War, the competition was once again held in Cortina, but with no official status.

Northern Italy: an ideal region for Alpine tourism

These strategic choices drew attention to the north of Italy, which also benefits from a geographical advantage.

“No other country has as long a part of the Alps on its territory as Italy,” explains Quin, who is also Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mountain Research at the University of Lausanne. “In this richer part of the country, there were more people close to the Alps able to take advantage of what was on offer, which helped to boost the growth of tourism.”

The development of winter sports was further encouraged by the number of hotels available, which had the capacity needed to host big sports events – further reinforcing the power of the hoteliers. “The hotel owners were on the management boards of the ski lift or railway companies,” Quin says. “In most cases, they also had political functions.”

This explains why the development of winter sports and tourism is closely linked to that of transport. Transport companies were keen to take advantage of the arrival of new foreign tourists drawn by the facilities and events, but also to carry lugers and skiers uphill.

For example, the start of the bobsleigh track in Chamonix, which hosted the “International Winter Sports Week” in 1924, was located at the top of the first part of a funicular. In order to welcome visitors from Paris, the snow was removed from several kilometres of railway line. Doing this led to a regular service between Paris and Chamonix, which then operated each winter. As a result, these first Olympic Winter Games, intended to promote the region by showcasing its tourism potential through the practice of various sports, fulfilled their mission perfectly.

“For the Winter Games in 1956, a road was built to Cortina, together with a number of ski lifts, which were added to after the Games,” explains Sbetti. “St Moritz benefitted from the railway line built from [the nearby Swiss city] Chur, leading to a boom in tourism. The rate of growth in the places offering winter sports is linked directly to the ability to get there by train,” Quin adds. “It’s a whole tourist system, comprising hotel, railway or road and ski lift.”

A longstanding winter sports tradition in Italy

The Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games were a major turning point in Italian sporting history.

“After going through some tough years after the war, Italy was the first of the defeated countries to restore its image thanks to the Olympic Games,” says Sbetti, who is a specialist in the history of international sport and its relationship with Italian politics.

“With this event, and then the Summer Games in Rome in 1960, the country wanted to show that it was capable of being a good host. Cortina 1956 demonstrated Italian efficiency in organising a major international competition. Despite its reputation of being behind with preparations, Italy always ends up delivering a successful event, like the Games in Turin in 2006 and like the Milano Cortina Games will be next year.”

The timing was perfect for Italy to take full advantage of the Games. “Cortina 1956 benefitted from what economic historians call a ‘take-off’, a period of rapid growth, in the middle of what the French call the ‘30 glorious years’,” says Quin. “The whole region benefitted from the white gold, as if the planets were perfectly aligned.” The context encouraged the democratisation of winter sports, which were no longer solely a pastime for the elite.

This process was accompanied by the growth in mass tourism. Cortina, taking advantage of the beauty of a region in the spotlight thanks to the Olympic Games, forged a reputation among the general public in the 1980s, not least thanks to cinema. The presence of James Bond in For Your Eyes Only and the popularity of the Cortina-set film, Vacanze di Natale (Christmas Holiday), made the resort a byword for luxury mountain holidays. The area of north Italy between Milan and Cortina hosting the 2026 Winter Games has a proud winter sports tradition.

The first bobsleigh and Alpine skiing competitions set the scene for several other competitions in the area, including in Val Gardena and Bormio, both of which went on to stage the Alpine skiing world championships.

The Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Olympic Winter Games consolidated the area’s sporting foundations in terms of credibility – benefitting the whole Alpine area, which then capitalised on its winter sports knowhow and created a real snowball effect.

“In Alpine skiing in particular, the north of Italy set the standard for others to follow,” Sbetti explains. “Resorts such as Bormio, Alta Badia, Val Gardena and Sestriere began to rival Cortina, thanks in particular to the creation of the Alpine skiing World Cup, which made them known all over the world.”

Founded by L’Équipe magazine, the famous Alpine skiing World Cup circuit included stages in Madonna di Campliglio and Sestriere, alongside the likes of Wengen and Kitzbühel, in its first winter of competition in January 1967. The advent of live television coverage also helped to popularise both Alpine skiing and the regions hosting the competitions.

This renowned Italian expertise has enabled the region to put itself on the world map for winter sport. It has also enabled Italian athletes to place their country among the world's best nations in the medal table in well-established and very popular Olympic disciplines such as Alpine skiing and bobsleigh.

“Cortina, which has one of the world’s oldest ski clubs, has hosted over 100 men’s and women’s Alpine skiing World Cup races.

Bormio, with its Stelvio piste, has held almost 50,” explains Alberto Ghezze, Head of Sport Competition at the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee.

“Anterselva, which will be hosting the biathlon competitions this winter, has become a fixture for the World Cup, staging the competition on several occasions. For its part, Val di Fiemme, host of the cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined events in February, stages the prestigious Tour de Ski event, and has organised several editions of the Nordic ski championships. We have deeply rooted local expertise in these regions.”

Alps at the heart of the Games in the years ahead

Italy’s rich winter sports past was highlighted not only by the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games, but also by the many international competitions held in the region – including in Cortina, which staged the world championships in curling (2010) and

Alpine skiing (2021), each time offering the opportunity to build new facilities or renovate existing ones. With the 2026 Games approaching, the Dolomites resort is more attractive than ever.

“The economic fabric is being completely renewed in Cortina: new hotels, new ski lifts, better connections between ski areas, new facilities linked to the future Olympic Games,” says Sbetti. “This shows that major events can bring about real change for the local community and boost an entire region.”

This modernity is rooted in tradition, as shown by the legendary Olympia delle Tofane run in Cortina, which links past (the men’s downhill at the 1956 Winter Olympic Games) and present (the women’s downhill in 2026).

“This run is regarded as one of the most attractive on the women’s circuit, while Bormio, which will host the men’s Olympic downhill, has one of the most feared courses of the men’s World Cup,” Ghezze proudly explains. “These legendary runs will produce the world’s great champions next February!”

The Olympic rings are ready to shine between Milan and Cortina, lighting up a region with a rich winter sports heritage. The Olympic pioneers in the Alps, Chamonix (1924), St Moritz (1928 and 1948) and Cortina (1956) will be back in the spotlight during the next decade: Milan and Cortina in 2026, then the French Alps in 2030 and a Swiss bid for 2038.

These are choices that reflect Olympic Agenda. “The role of the Alps in providing the hosts of future Olympic Games will grow, for reasons of climate and topography in particular,” Quin believes. Perfect timing, then, for the Games to return to their winter birthplace.

The Cortina ice stadium: blending tradition with modernity

A physical legacy of the first Olympic Games held in Italy, the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio was the venue for figure skating and ice hockey events at the Cortina d’Ampezzo Games in 1956. It also hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. At the time, the ice rink stood out for its concrete architecture, the building material par excellence of the “30 glorious years”. The renovated ice stadium in Cortina will be devoted entirely to the curling tournaments at the 2026 Games. “The sport was not Olympic in 1956, but it was in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy that it became an Olympic sport,” recalls Alberto Ghezze, Head of Sport Competition at the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee. Today, the ice rink offers a fascinating blend of modern design and traces of the past, including its original wooden stand. A testament to a long and rich tradition.