[Neon winter sport figures light up city street at night. Photo Credit to Unsplash]

The 2026 Winter Olympics are set to  commence on February 6th, 2026. 

It  will be the first Olympics hosted by two cities,  Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Milan will host the ice events and the opening ceremony, while Cortina d’Ampezzo will host sliding, skiing, and curling events. 

The Olympics is  generating significant buzz as seven new events are confirmed to be present for the first time in a century.

People are  particularly excited to watch the debut of ski mountaineering. 

Ski mountaineering, often called Skimo, is a human-powered endurance competition that involves climbing uphill and skiing downhill.

For the 2026 Winter Olympics,  2871 athletes  from 93 nations are expected to  participate.

The opening ceremony will begin in Milan,  and viewers are anticipating  performances from Mariah Carey and famous Italian singers such as Andrea  Bocelli.

Audiences are keeping  a close eye  on rising/long-term athletes from the past Olympics.

So  far, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, a Norwegian cross-country skier, has won 5 medals in the Olympics. 

If he wins another one in the 2026 Winter Olympics, he could make history.

The Milan-Cortina mascots are brother and sister, Tina and Milo. 

They are named after the two hosting  cities, Milan and Cortina.

Hockey fans are excited as  this will be the first time since 2014, to see NHL hockey players in the Olympics.

According to the Olympic Foundation, the United States has the most gold medals, having a total of 1220. Next up is the Soviet Union with 473 gold medals.

Counting each player, American swimmer Michael Phelps takes the lead with 23 gold medals. 

The main sponsors for the 2026 Winter Olympics  include Alibaba, Allianz, Coca Cola, Corona  Cero,   Omega, P&G, Samsung, Visa, and Deloitte.

While each country is provided with national sponsors specifically for each (Like team Canada’s partners such as Lululemon, Bell, Canadian Tire). 

The  sponsors cover various  aspects of the team from clothing to foods.

In some countries, they provide awards for medal winning athletes, this year Singapore tops out the payout ranking by offering approximately $792,000 for an individual gold medal, $395,000 for  silver, and $197,000 for Bronze.

The first and most recent gold medal winner in Singapore was Joseph Schooling at the 2016 summer  Olympics in Men’s 100m Butterfly.

In contrast to life-winning fame for a gold medal winner in Singapore, some countries do not offer prize money or even glory for  medal-winning athletes. 

Countries such as Norway, the United Kingdom, and China do not provide payouts for medal-winning athletes.

Instead, most of the Olympic qualified athletes are provided financial aid.

Since the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, there have been athletes competing in the Olympics for their first time, while others  have more experience.

For  17 days, audiences will see world records being broken, as people around the world gather to cheer for their nations and celebrate the spirit of unity.