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What to know about the Milan Cortina Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony is set to begin in Milan. Athletes from each country participating in the Games this month will shuffle through San Siro in what is likely to be the final major event before it is torn down in the last few years.

The 99-year-old arena is home to Inter Milan and AC Milan of Serie A. The soccer clubs plan to knock it down and build a new stadium before Italy hosts the 2032 European Championship with Turkey.

There are 92 National Olympic Committees and Independent Olympic Athletes participating in the Games this year. Russian and Belarusian athletes are able to compete in the Games but under the status of an Individual Neutral Athlete as their countries continue their war in Ukraine.

Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Singapore, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Venezuela are participating in these Games but didn’t participate in the 2022 Olympics.

With the Winter Olympics officially getting under way today, there are some things sports fans should know about the Milan Cortina Games.

The Winter Games will be hosted in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo – an historic first for the Olympics being that it will be jointly hosted. It will be the first Games held under International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry and the third time it will be held in the country.

There will be 16 different sports on display during the games with 116 medal events.The first medal events will begin on Saturday.

The U.S. finished in third place in total medals in 2022 in Beijing. The Americans were also tied for third place in the number of gold medals with China. Norway and Germany are the two countries that have dominated in winter sports in the last few Winter Games.