The Winter Olympics have a long tradition of attracting viewers to sports they normally wouldn't be exposed to, and with four Irish athletes also heading to Italy for the 2026 Games, here's a run down on all you need to know as you swot up on your curling, luge and skeleton.
WHEN?
6-22 February - although the round-robin stages of the curling will actually take place on 4 and 5 February with ice hockey and snowboarding starting on 5 February.
WHERE?
Italy's Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities some six years ago, beating off the challenge of Swedish cities Stockholm and Are. It will be the first time the Winter Games have been hosted by two cities.
COVERAGE
The RTÉ Player will have live coverage of 12 of the 16 days with a nightly highlights show too. The opening and closing ceremonies will also be shown live.
The RTÉ Sport website will carry extensive previews, reports and reaction, including from Ireland’s four-person competing party.
OPENING/CLOSING CEREMONIES
The opening ceremony will take place in the legendary San Siro stadium in Milan and will be titled 'Armonia', meaning harmony. Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli are amongst those scheduled to perform.
The closing ceremony will be held at the Verona Arena, the Roman amphitheatre that is one of Italy's most famed concert venues. Festivities will include the formal handover to the French Alps, who will host the 2030 Winter Games.
ITALIAN’S WINTER OLYMPIC HISTORY
This will be the third Winter Olympics to be staged in Italy, although it could have been four had the 1944 Games not been cancelled due to World War 2.
Cortina d'Ampezzo was the scheduled host back then, as they are now, but they did get to hold it 12 years later in 1956 – the first to feature the Soviet Union who topped the medal table. Their presence at the Summer Games in Melbourne later that year saw a number of nations boycott following the Soviet Union’s crushing of the Hungarian Revolution.
Turin also hosted the 2006 Winter Games after surprisingly winning the bidding process over Swiss city Sion. The Games were noted for a number of doping scandals, with the Austrian athletes’ quarter raided by police during the festival. The following year, six Austrian athletes were banned for life from the Olympics.
Ireland sent eight athletes to the 2006 Games with David Connolly, 20th in the men’s skeleton, producing the most notable result.
WELCOMING A NEW SPORT
There’s a new sport on the agenda this year - ski mountaineering.
Often referred to as 'skimo’, it consists of ascents and descents with competitors using skis and hiking on foot at various times in the race.
Women’s doubles in luge, women’s large hill in ski jumping, mixed team in skeleton, men’s and women’s dual moguls in freestyle skiing and team combined in alpine skiing are returning disciplines.
A LITTLE BIT OF STARDUST
Norway are the masters of the Winter Games with 406 medals, first in the all-time medal list ahead of USA (330) and Germany (267) and they are favourites to top the medal list in Italy too.
Cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo is the superstar of the Norwegian team having won three gold medals at his debut Games in 2018. He has since added two more gold medals, a silver and a bronze. Fellow Norwegian Marit Bjoergen holds the cross-country medal record with eight, so Klaebo is chasing history.
The ice hockey appeal shot up when it was confirmed that Team USA would allow NHL players to compete for the first time since 2014, and they will do so again at the 2030 Games in the French Alps. Matthew Tkachuk is a notable name on their roster, with his younger brother Brady also heading to Italy. Their father Keith represented USA at four Olympics.
TEAM IRELAND CONFIRMS LINE-UP FOR WINTER GAMES
Expect lots of fanfare for home favourite Arianna Fontana who competes in short track speed skating. She has 11 Olympics medals already and if she adds anymore, it will be the sixth consecutive Games doing so.
IRELAND’S CALL
Ireland have named a four-athlete team, with cross-country skier Thomas Maloney Westgaard set for his third games – a feat only previously achieved by snowboarder Seamus O'Connor.
Ireland's other three representatives are all first-timers.
Seventeen-year-old Colorado native Anabelle Zurbay will compete in slalom and giant slalom events. Dubliner Cormac Comerford will represent his country in the downhill, giant slalom run and Super G disciplines. Ben Lynch competes in the freestyle skiing halfpipe event.
FAMOUS IRISH WINTER MOMENTS
Ireland first competed in the Winter Games in 1992 and 42 Irish athletes have now donned green in the snow, but gold, silver or bronze are colours yet to be worn. There is no expectation of that changing in the coming weeks.
Still, there have been moments that have captured the imagination of the Irish public.
In 2002, Tamsen McGarry became the first Irish female athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics. She finished 35th in the slalom and 46th in the giant slalom at Salt Lake City. Younger sister Kirsten would compete in the 2006 and 2010 Games for Ireland.
Those Salt Late Games in '02 also saw Ireland come within one place of a medal as Clifton Wrottesley finished fourth in the men’s skeleton. He also served as the Chef de Mission for the Irish team at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
In 2014, Seamus O’Connor became the first Irish snowboarder in Olympic history and the then 16-year-old just missed out on a spot in the finals.
DID YOU KNOW?
American Eddie Eagan holds a special place in sporting history as the only athlete to have won gold medals in both the Winter and Summer Games in different disciplines. At the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, the Denver native won gold in boxing and in 1932 he was a member of the successful four-man bobsled team at the Winter Games in in Lake Placid.
Sweden's Gillis Grafstrom also won gold at both, with skating a summer sport for his gold in 1920 before becoming a winter sport for his successes in 1924 and '28.
PARALYMPIC WINTER GAMES
Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo will also host the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games from 6-15 March.
Watch the Winter Olympics with highlights each night and selected live coverage on RTÉ Player
