Milano Cortina 2026 showcases sport and venue innovation in most gender-balanced Winter Games ever
With a second full day of competition under way across northern Italy, the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games are marking a new chapter for the Olympic Movement, combining sporting innovation, evolving event formats and forward-looking venue operations.
Key facts
- Milano Cortina 2026 features a record 50 women’s events, making it the most gender-balanced events programme at the Olympic Winter Games to date.
- Eight new events have been included while maintaining the overall athlete quota, alongside the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering.
- Games venues integrate innovation and sustainability, including high-efficiency snowmaking systems that minimise environmental impact.
Reflecting the continued evolution of the Olympic Games, Milano Cortina 2026 is the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games ever staged, with women accounting for 47 per cent of athlete quotas and a record 50 women’s events, up from 46 at Beijing 2022. This targeted objective has been delivered across several sports and disciplines, including equal quotas and an increase in the number of women’s events in ski jumping, equalisation of distances in cross-country skiing, and increased women’s quotas in luge and bobsleigh, among other adjustments to event numbers, quotas and competition formats.
“There’s been a lot of progress in this direction,” said IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey. “We have four new women’s events on this programme, and across most of the sports you can now see a better balance between men and women. It’s a big objective for the IOC to try to achieve parity, as we demonstrated at Paris 2024, so we continue to work towards further improving that balance.”
Innovation is also reflected in the sports programme itself. Eight new events have been added while respecting the overall athlete quota of 2,900, demonstrating how the Games can evolve without increasing in size. New additions include the skeleton mixed team event, women’s doubles in luge, women’s and men’s dual moguls in freestyle skiing, and the women’s large hill individual event in ski jumping.
Another major milestone for Milano Cortina 2026 is the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering, the first new sport added to the Winter Games in more than 25 years. Deeply rooted in Alpine tradition, ski mountaineering features lightweight, human-powered competition requiring no ski-lift infrastructure. Three events are included: men’s sprint, women’s sprint and mixed relay, selected to balance venue constraints, scheduling considerations and broadcast appeal.
Beyond the sports programme, innovation is embedded across Games venues and operations.
A concrete example is snowmaking, which meets high sustainability standards and is applied only where necessary to guarantee safe, fair and consistent competition conditions.
Snowmaking is kept to the minimum required and is supported by automated, high-efficiency systems combined with GPS-based monitoring, which reduces unnecessary production and cuts electricity use by around 30 per cent. Most of the snowmaking equipment is powered by renewable energy, with most snowcats running on HVO – a renewable biofuel.
“The mountains have truly opened up for these Games through close collaboration with local communities and the use of their deep local expertise,” said Anna Riccardi, the Milano Cortina 2026 Sports Director. “In doing so, we have fully aligned with the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2025, utilising 85 per cent existing venues and infrastructure. This approach allows us to deliver Games that are as sustainable and modern as possible, while ensuring smooth operations and an exciting, high-quality experience for athletes and audiences alike.”
Milano Cortina 2026 benefits from the use of existing world-class venues – most powered by renewable electricity - new sports and events, broadcast innovations, iconic venues and sustainable operations in a way that keeps athletes, performance and the Olympic experience at the heart of the Games.