MILAN — The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina got underway Wednesday with men’s Alpine downhill training, curling mixed doubles round robin matches and luge men’s singles training runs.
The biggest news so far of these Games is Lindsey Vonn sharing on Tuesday that she suffered a rupture of the ACL in her left knee in a downhill crash on Jan. 30, but said she feels ‘confident’ she’ll be able to compete in the women’s downhill on Sunday.
The opening ceremony is set for Friday, and the first medals can be won Saturday. Here is the full Winter Olympics schedule.
USA TODAY Sports is bringing you the latest updates, news and Olympics results from here in Milan. Follow along.
Lindsey Vonn schedule update
Lindsey Vonn will have to wait to test her knee in a race-like setting. Vonn had drawn the first bib for Thursday’s training, the first of three official runs ahead of Sunday’s downhill. But organizers canceled it a short time later due to the snow that’s been falling all day in Cortina. There are still training runs schedule for Friday and Saturday. — Nancy Armour
Olympic Alpine skiing results
Men’s Alpine skiers hit the slopes in Bormio today for downhill training. Team USA’s Ryan Cochran-Siegle went 13th in the order and logged the fastest time of the session with a run of 1:56.08. Cochran-Siegle, a three-time Olympian, took silver in the super-G at the 2022 Olympics. He finished third in downhill last weekend in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and was second in the downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December. He’s traditionally done well in Bormio, his only World Cup win coming there in super-G in 2021.
Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni had the second-fastest time (1:56.24) and Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt (1:56.48) posted the third-fastest time.
USA’s Kyle Negomir finished in 16th (1:57.98), Bryce Bennett in 25th (1:58.62), Sam Morse in 31st (1:59.65), and River Radamus finished in 36th (2:00.91). The second training session for men’s downhill is Thursday at 5:30 a.m. ET. — Nancy Armour
Olympics schedule today
All times Eastern.
5:30 a.m.: Alpine Skiing – Men’s Downhill 1st Official Training | Stelvio Ski Centre (Bormio, Valtellina)
1:05 p.m.: Curling – Mixed Doubles Round Robin (Session 1) | Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
SWE vs. KOR; GBR vs. NOR; CAN vs. CZE; EST vs. SUI
1:30 p.m.: Luge – Men’s Singles Official Training (Runs 1–2) | Cortina Sliding Centre (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
Where are Winter Olympics 2026?
The Winter Olympics always sprawl, because of the need for mountains. But the Milano Cortina Games are the most geographically spread out in Olympic and Paralympic history, with a footprint just slightly smaller than the entire state of New Jersey.
2026 Winter Olympics TV schedule today
Peacock is streaming every event live today.
Steam Olympics on Peacock
When is Olympics opening ceremony?
The opening ceremony is Friday, Feb. 6, starting at 2 p.m. ET and lasting around three hours. This year’s opening ceremony will be held at San Siro Stadium in Milan, a 100-year-old venue that will now play host to the likes of Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli and athletes from more than 90 countries around the world. Officials previously announced an inclusive theme featuring a show inside the stadium as well as ‘satellite events’ in Olympic territories.
Iconic Tongan Olympian to carry flag once again at Milano Cortina Games
In an Olympic tradition quite unlike any other, Pita Taufatofua of Tonga will once again carry his country’s flag during the opening ceremony for the Milano Cortina Winter Games. And you can bet he won’t be wearing a shirt again either.
US flag bearers for opening ceremony
Olympic speedskating champion Erin Jackson and bobsledder Frank Del Duca have been selected as the flag bearers for Team USA’s delegation at the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Games.
Jackson, who won gold in the women’s 500 meters in Beijing in 2022, will be back to defend her title and compete in the 1,000 meters as well. This will mark her third Olympic appearance.
‘It’ll definitely give me a lot of motivation, because just walking out into opening ceremonies even without carrying the flag, it’s this amazing feeling of like, ‘OK, we’re here. We’re at the Olympics. We’re surrounded by all these amazing people who have worked so hard to get to this point,” Jackson said Wednesday. ‘Just even being in the opening ceremonies, that’s just like the start of the games, but it’s always just kind of like a breathtaking feeling. I think carrying the flag is just going to add to that, and I’m really looking forward to it.’
Del Duca − a sergeant in the U.S. Army stationed in Lake Placid, New York − made his Olympic Winter Games debut in Beijing, and has been in the sport for over a decade. He is part of the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP).
Will Ilia Malinin skate both parts of Olympics team event?
U.S. Figure Skating has a dilemma, and it stems from one of the sport’s current truths: Ilia Malinin is just too good.
Malinin, the 21-year-old “Quad God,” is the heavy favorite to win the men’s individual gold medal next week at the 2026 Winter Olympics. But first comes the team competition Friday through Sunday, which the United States also can win — especially if Malinin skates both the short and long programs in the men’s category.
However, if Malinin skates both parts of the team competition, he will be pushing his body for one event when he really should be focusing on another: the all-important men’s individual competition that begins Tuesday, Feb. 10, with the short program and ends Friday, Feb. 13, with the long program.
He and his coaches and the team around him would prefer he skate just the short program in the team event Saturday night, then not have to come back for the men’s long program — which will start at 10 p.m. local time Sunday night — and instead watch either Andrew Torgashev or Max Naumov take over. But Torgashev and Naumov have not performed well on the world stage and have nowhere near the experience Malinin has as the two-time world champion and four-time national champion.
The current plan, according to people with knowledge of the situation, is for Malinin to skate the men’s short program in the team event, at which time U.S. officials will assess the Americans’ medal position to decide if Malinin is needed in the long program. It’s possible he could “water down” his long program from his historic seven quadruple jumps to “only” three, as he did at the U.S. championships in January, but either way, he would be in the heat of competition with the crucial men’s individual event right around the corner. — Christine Brennan
