Milano Cortina 2026 in numbers: record engagement, efficient delivery, world-class performance

Across 19 days of competition, athletes produced historic performances that raised the standard of winter sport, breaking Olympic and world records and showcasing the extraordinary level of today’s competitors.

Here’s some of the key data from the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games (as of 21 February, preliminary figures):

Sport

• Around 2,900 athletes participated (final number to be confirmed).

• 8 sports.

• 16 Olympic disciplines.

• Ski mountaineering made its Olympic Winter Games debut.

• 116 medal events.

• 709 medals assigned.*

• Eight new events: ski mountaineering men’s sprint; ski mountaineering women’s sprint; ski mountaineering mixed relay; skeleton mixed team; luge women’s doubles; freestyle skiing men’s dual moguls; freestyle skiing women’s dual moguls; and ski jumping women’s large hill individual.

• 13 Olympic records broken.

• 1 world record broken (Xandra Velzeboer – Short Track Sped Skating – Women’s 500m).  

• 92 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) took part, plus Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

• Benin, Guinea-Bissau and United Arab Emirates competed in their first Olympic Winter Games.

• 29 NOCs won medals.

• 2 NOCs won their first-ever Olympic Winter Games medals:

• Brazil (1 gold: Lucas Pinheiro Braathen - Alpine Skiing – Men’s Giant Slalom).

• Georgia (1 silver: Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava - Figure Skating -  Pair Skating).

Gender Equality

• Most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history, with women accounting for 47 per cent of the athletes.
• With the introduction of four new women’s events on the programme, Milano Cortina 2026 featured the highest number of women’s events at any Olympic Winter Games, with 50 events compared to 46 at Beijing 2022. 
• 12 of the 16 sport disciplines in Milano Cortina were fully gender balanced. 

Spectators

• Over 1.3 million tickets sold.
• Over 600,000 people visited the Fan Villages across the host regions.

Volunteers

• 18,000 (picked from 130,000 applications)
• 51 per cent female/49 per cent male
• 48 per cent aged under 35
• 98 nationalities

Olympic Villages

• 6 Olympic Villages.
• Villages served per day:
  • 356kg of pasta
  • 10,000 eggs
  • 8,000 coffees
  • 12,000 pizza slices

Media and Broadcast

• 24 Media Rights-Holders (MRHs).
• 80+ broadcast sublicensees.
• 6,500+ hours produced by Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS).
• 810+ camera systems capturing all the action.
• 25 drones (15 First-Person View (FPV), 10 traditional drones).
• 32 cinematic cameras.
• 17 real-time 360-degree replay systems.
• 1,800 microphones.
• 10,000+ broadcast personnel (4,500+ OBS / 5,500+ MRHs).
• 2,537 accredited press: 269 domestic and 2,267 international (written press, photographers and non-media rights-holders).
• 803 news organisations.
• 694 photographers.

Broadcast

• 2 out of 3 Italians have watched Rai’s coverage of the Games - a higher proportion than for Paris 2024.
• Italians have watched more coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games than the four previous Winter Games combined. 
• Europe: European Broadcast Union (EBU) and Members dominated the media landscape and consistently outperformed their typical market share.
• France, the next Olympic Winter Games host, had over 50 million viewers watching coverage on France Télévisions, a higher reach than Torino 2006.   
• In the USA (by Thursday 19 February), the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games had averaged 24.1 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal Digital Platforms and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network – the most-watched Winter Games at this point since 2014, and up 93 per cent from Beijing 2022.
• In Brazil, coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Ski Jumping now stands as the most watched Winter Games competition in Brazilian history. Moreover, streaming records for the Olympic Winter Games have been shattered in the territory.
• In Japan, Olympic coverage on Japan Consortium’s TV channels has reached more than 92 million viewers, equivalent to over 80 per cent of the potential audience.

Digital*

*Figures are provisional and reflect performance as of 21 February

Olympics Web, App and Direct Marketing

• 110 million users have engaged with the Olympics Web & App platforms, a record for the Olympic Winter Games.
• 120 million opens have been recorded for the Olympics App during Milano Cortina 2026, with it ranking as the No. 1 sports app across 75+ territories.
• 170 million mobile push notifications have been delivered, keeping fans connected to key moments in real time.
• 120 million personalised emails have been delivered to fans, activating over 400 campaigns across 9 languages.

@Olympics Social Media

• Over 10 billion engagements have been generated across Olympics social media handles during Milano Cortina 2026, tripling the volume recorded for Beijing 2022.
• 8.7 million new followers have been added across Olympic social media accounts during Milano Cortina 2026, bringing the total global followership to over 172 million.

Olympics Campaigns and Experiences

• 42 campaigns have been delivered in collaboration with IOC Worldwide Olympic Partners, making this the most extensive Olympic Winter Games marketing programme to date.
• 59 million video views have been generated by the Olympics‑produced short film Ti Amo, with additional global exposure via MRHs.
• 270 million engagements have been generated by social content featuring the Olympic rings Pasta, which has also been featured by leading media outlets reporting on the pasta’s viral success.
• 750 million social media engagements have been generated through Olympic Celebrity and Creator programmes.

Sustainability

• 85 per cent of competition venues were existing or temporary (11 of 13), significantly reducing the need for new construction.
• Almost 100 per cent of competition and non-competition venues were powered by renewable electricity, with back-up generators powered by Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) - an advanced, renewable biofuel.
• 20 per cent fewer cars were used compared with Torino 2006 under a low-carbon transport plan that prioritised trains and shuttles, with 20 per cent of the official fleet electric.
• High-efficiency snowmaking systems and GPS monitoring were used to reduce unnecessary production, cutting electricity use by around 30 per cent. Most were powered by renewable electricity.
• Organisers committed to recycling 70 per cent of urban waste, including 100 per cent PET bottle-to-bottle recycling, and recovery of food leftovers across all venues.
• 24,000 items from Paris 2024 (such as furniture and logistical equipment) were re-used for these Games.

Impact and Legacy

• For the first time, sport has been referenced in the Italian Constitution, which should result in increased investment at both regional and national levels.
• More than 330 initiatives have inspired healthy lifestyles and inclusion, including the Gen26 Education Programme (1.5 million students engaged) and Italia dei Giochi, which involved over five million people.
• Over EUR 1.77 million in Games-related procurement has been awarded to local social and micro-enterprises through 76 contracts, supporting businesses to build capacity for future events.
• Approximately 270,000 hours of training were delivered to 18,000 volunteers, developing skills in the organisation of major events which will remain in the Games territories.
• Over EUR 5 billion in net economic impact and 36,000 new jobs are expected to have been generated for Italy, according to estimates by Bocconi and Ca’ Foscari Universities.

Olympic Solidarity

• 17 medals won by individual scholarship-holders: 3 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze, plus 54 diplomas (4-8^th place finishes).
• Five Olympic scholarship-holders won historic medals for their NOCs (Luca BERULAVA, GEO, Figure Skating Pairs, Silver, Georgia’s first‑ever medal at an Olympic Winter Games; Lora HRISTOVA, BUL, Biathlon Women's 15km Individual, Silver, Bulgaria’s first Olympic biathlon medal since 2002; Viktor Hald THORUP, DEN, Silver, Speed Skating Men’s Mass Start, first-ever individual Winter Olympic medal; Ana ALONSO/Oriol CARDONA, ESP, in first ever SkiMo events: Gold - Men Individual, Bronze - Women Individual, Bronze - Mixed Relay)
• 249 Olympic Solidarity individual scholarship-holders from 74 NOCs qualified for Milano Cortina 2026.
• 449 athletes from 90 NOCs received Olympic Solidarity scholarships during the qualification period, helping to cover essential training, equipment and competition costs.
• In addition to individual athlete scholarships, seven NOCs with larger delegations also benefitted from tailored support through Olympic Solidarity providing them with greater flexibility in allocating resources for their athletes’ preparation throughout the qualification period.
• In total, 97 NOCs benefitted from Olympic Solidarity support on the road to Milano Cortina 2026.
• Curling and ice hockey teams from 10 NOCs benefitted from Team Support Grants, which enable NOCs to select national teams for targeted technical and financial support as they prepare for Olympic qualification. Eight teams ultimately qualified for the Games. Four of these teams earned an Olympic diploma (one in Men’s Curling, 3 in Women’s Ice Hockey).

Education and Culture

• More than 2 million students, 150,000 teachers and 1,500 schools and youth groups engaged in Olympic and Paralympic activities through the Gen26 Education Programme.
• Over 100 entities and universities recognised with the Gen26 label.
• More than 20 educational toolkits developed, which can continue to be used after the Games.
• Approximately 17,000 teachers across Italy were reached through training webinars as part of the IOC’s flagship Olympic Values Education Programme (translated into Italian).
• Nearly 20,000 Olympic Games tickets and 20,000 Paralympic Games tickets were purchased at a reduced price by the Italian Ministry of Education and Merit and distributed to schools across Italy.
• More than 500 cultural projects across Italy were delivered as part of the Cultural Olympiad, representing over 3,283 event days and reaching an audience of more than 7.5 million people.
• More than 50 Cultural Olympiad initiatives were supported by the The Olympic Museum, which also brought iconic Olympic artefacts to Italy for the first time and built long-lasting collaborations with some of the country’s most influential cultural institutions.
• Collaborations have been established with 24 Italian and eight international universities to promote sport and education, alongside partnerships with eight Istituto Tecnico Superiori (ITS).
• In addition, 150+ hours of training have been delivered along with master’s and executive programmes, internships within the Organising Committee, the Conferenza dei Rettori delle Università Italiane (CRUI) volunteer programme, and Olympic initiatives including Olympic Information Services and the Olympic Studies Centre.

The focus now shifts to the French Alps 2030, where the next chapter of the Olympic Winter Games will build on this edition’s achievements in performance, sustainability and global engagement. With strong public interest already evident in France and a clear commitment to maximising existing venues and long-term legacy, French Alps 2030 will continue to advance more sustainable, inclusive and innovative Games for athletes, communities and fans worldwide.

* In an earlier version we reported that 740 medals were assigned. This was the projected number which has now been replaced by the actual number awarded.