Milano-Cortina 2026: Understanding Italy's history with winter sport
With the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 approaching, we take a look at Italy's finest winter sports moments from history, its greatest athletes, and famous venues that will be on show once more.
Italy has a rich history at the Olympic Winter Games, both as a participant and a host.
Italian athletes have competed at every edition of the Games, amassing 141 Olympic medals to date - including 42 golds.
In three years time the European powerhouse will host its third Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina 2026, and it is planning to make them the greatest edition yet.
Below, we take a look at some of Italy’s finest Winter Olympic moments, its greatest athletes, and more.
Olympic Winter OGames hosted in Italy
Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956
There was a special atmosphere at the Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956 Games, with most of the venues within walking distance of each other.
Three-time Olympic speed skater Guido Caroli skated into the Opening Ceremony to light the cauldron, and the host nation finished eighth in the medal table out of 32 nations with one gold and two silver medals.
Thirty-two nations took part, and it was to be the last time that the figure skating competition was held outdoors at the Olympics, the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio.
Turin 2006
The Games had grown from 24 medal events at Cortina d’Ampezzo to 84 at Turin 2006, with Olympic debuts for mass start biathlon, team sprint cross-country skiing, snowboard cross, and team pursuit speed skating.
Italy finished ninth in the medal table out of a then record of 80 nations, with five gold medals and six bronze.
Manuela Di Centa, a seven-time cross-country skiing Olympic medallist, was presented the medals for the men’s 50km event, which included giving the gold medal to her brother Giorgio Di Centa.
Milano Cortina 2026
Seventy years on from Italy’s debut as an Olympic host in 1956, the Games will return to Italy for Milano Cortina 2026.
Approximately 2,900 athletes will contest 114 events, with 47% female participation in what will be the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games ever.
Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut, while curling will take place in the repurposed Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio - which now has a roof.
For more details, check out our one-stop guide to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
Italy’s performance at the Winter Olympics
Italy has won 141 Winter Olympic medals to date, including 42 golds, 42 silvers, and 56 bronzes.
The nation’s most successful discipline is alpine skiing, with 14 Olympic champions, followed by cross-country skiing with nine.
Despite Germany’s traditional dominance in the sliding events, Italy has managed to compete with them, with seven luge golds and four in bobsleigh.
At the Winter Olympics Beijing 2022, Italy took home 17 medals, including golds for short track speed skater Arianna Fontana and curling mixed doubles pair Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner.
Italy’s most successful Winter Olympic athletes
Arianna Fontana, short track speed skating
Arianna Fontana is the most decorated Italian athlete at the Winter Olympics, with eleven medals.
She won gold in the women’s 500m event at PyeongChang 2018, before defending that title at Beijing 2022.
The 32-year-old also won silver medals in the 1500m and 2000m mixed relay, to become the most decorated short track speed skater in Olympic history.
Deborah Compagnoni, alpine skiing
With three Olympic gold medals and one silver, Deborah Compagnoni is Italy’s greatest ever female alpine skier.
The Bormio athlete’s resume is made all the more impressive given that she overcame a broken knee as a junior racer, and needed life-saving surgery to remove 27 inches of her intestine in 1990 to win the Albertville 1992 Olympic Super-G by 1.8 seconds.
The following day, Compagnoni tore knee ligaments in the Giant Slalom, but returned to win the Giant Slalom at the Lillehammer 1994 Games. She defended that title at Nagano 1998, meaning she is also the only alpine skier to earn gold at three-consecutive Olympics. Today she is an Ambassador of Milano Cortina 2026.
Eugenio Monti, bobsleigh
Eugenio Monti is regarded as one of the greatest bobsleigh pilots in history
He won six Olympic medals, including two golds in the two and four-man at the Grenoble 1968 Games.
It may have been even more, but for the fact that bobsleigh wasn’t included at Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Olympics.
Monti was also a nine-time world champion, and was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal in 1964 for an act of sportsmanship when, in between runs, he lent a bolt off his own two-man sled to the damaged British sled. The Brits went on to take gold.
Manuela Di Centa, cross-country skiing
Manuela Di Centa was a household name in Italy in the 90s, when she won seven Olympic medals in cross-country skiing.
The pick of the punch were her 15km freestyle and 30km classical gold medals at Lillehammer 1994.
Cross-country skiing genes must have been strong in the Di Centa family , becuase her younger brother, Giorgio, won two Olympic gold medals at the Turin 2006 Games, while her niece, Martina, competed for Italy at Beijing 2022.
Alberto Tomba, alpine skiing
Nicknamed “La Bomba”, Alberto Tomba burst onto the alpine skiing circuit with a victory over Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark in his second World Cup outing.
As a muscular, powerful skier, he proved that skiing wasn’t just for the lighter, traditional build of athlete.
Not short of confidence, the Bologna native allegedly announced ‘I am the new messiah of skiing!’ as he crossed the finish line at a slalom race later that season that he won.
Tomba won the Giant Slalom and Slalom gold medals at the Calgary 1988, before defending the Giant Slalom title at Albertville 1992.
Armin Zoeggeler, luge
Growing up on top of a steep hill, Zoeggeler began sledding aged seven, to catch the school bus at the bottom.
In the professional luge ranks, he was nicknamed “The Cannibal” for his competitive attitude and steely focus towards racing.
In 2014 he retired as the first athlete to earn a medal in the same individual event at six consecutive Olympics.
The bronze medals came at Lillehammer 1994, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, silver at Nagano 1998, and gold at Salt Lake City 2002 and again on home ice at Turin 2006.
Famous World Cup venues selected for Milano Cortina 2026
Cortina d’Ampezzo
Biathlon will take place in Anterselva-Antholz, a renowned place for those who are interested in the sport. It is an existing annual stop on the Biathlon World Cup circuit and here local favourite Dorothea Wierer clinched two of her three world titles in 2020.
Bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge athletes will lock horns in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
The women’s alpine skiing events will be hosted at the Olympia delle Tofane, the same venue that hosted men’s downhill at Cortina 1956. The 2021 World Championships and regular World Cups over the years also took place at the same venue.
Valtellina
The men’s alpine skiing competitions will take place at the Stelvio Slope in Bormio, which debuted as a World Championships venue in 1985.
Considered one of the most difficult downhill courses in the world, it went on to host the 2005 World Championships, as well as World Cup events in 1995, 2000, and 2008.
Val di Fiemme
Ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic Combined will take place in Val di Fiemme, which hosted the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in 1991, 2003 and 2013.
Cross-country’s Tour de Ski has traditionally concluded since 2007 with the Final Climb stage finishing up on the Alpe Cermis.