Milano Cortina 2026 and LA28: next Olympic Games take centre stage during IOC EB meeting

Milano Cortina 2026

With the countdown to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 nearing the one-year-to-go mark, and the final winter sports season before the Games getting underway, the Organising Committee team outlined progress made during 2024. Their presentation underscored important developments and milestones ahead, as Italy gears up for the world’s biggest global winter sports event, from 6 to 22 February 2026.

This has been a year of hard work, in which Milano Cortina 2026 has made remarkable progress in all the most important areas, ranging from organisation to resource optimisation, from sponsorships to programmes such as volunteers, Look of the Games, ticketing, culture and education, among others.

The Organising Committee highlighted advances in several areas of organisation, including progress on venues. Well-established winter sports venues in the north of Italy that will be used during the Games will be tested this season, as they host athletes and fans during some of the most important winter sports competitions on the global calendar, which will provide an opportunity for Organising Committee staff to test operational plans. Where construction is needed, progress in key projects was also outlined, and this continues to be closely monitored to ensure that the challenging timelines are met.

The Organising Committee also summarised recent important developments in stakeholder engagement, highlighting the support garnered from the Italian government and regional public authorities, which is essential for the successful delivery of the Games, as demonstrated by Paris 2024.

The lessons that Paris 2024 passed on to us are invaluable. Through the active participation of our team and thanks to the Observer Programme, we were able to acquire a wealth of knowledge that will help us produce an effective and streamlined delivery model.

A Joint Olympic Council – a steering committee that includes all the institutional stakeholders of the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 – has been formally created.

The Milano Cortina 2026 commercial programme is also gaining momentum, with five more partners announced since the last update to the IOC EB in July 2024, and more in the pipeline.

The recently held World Press Briefing in Milan gave 240 representatives from media organisations, National Olympic Committees and International Winter Sports Federations the opportunity to visit some of the Games' mountain venues, hear presentations from key areas of the organisation, and hold meetings to support their preparations to cover the event.

The Organising Committee is also ramping up its public engagement endeavours, with the sale of public tickets slated to open on 6 February 2025, exactly one year before the Opening Ceremony. Earlier, in October 2024, ticket prices were unveiled, and people around the world can register on the official ticketing platform, tickets.milanocortina2026.org, until 15 January 2025. This was followed by the recent launch of exclusive hospitality packages.

Another significant engagement platform is the “Italia Dei Giochi” programme, which has already reached more than 1.2 million people across Italy. Launched in January 2024, it collates all sporting events that promote inclusion, sustainability and physical activity all over Italy, on the way to Milano Cortina 2026​. It has brought on board hundreds of sports associations, and dozens of public entities, to foster a nationwide culture of active participation.

In addition, the volunteer programme, dubbed “Team26”, launched earlier this year with an ambitious target of recruiting 18,000 volunteers to support the Games, has already received almost 70,000 applications, 66 per cent of which are from people under the age of 35.

On 26 November 2024, the Organising Committee revealed the route of the Olympic Torch Relay, which will travel across all 110 provinces of Italy over 63 days, with the flame carried by 10,001 torchbearers, engaging Italians and sparking excitement in the build-up to the Opening Ceremony. The Olympic flame will be lit on 26 November 2025.

All these programmes will be underpinned by the official “Look of the Games”, revealed in November, inspired by the “human gesture” and the new “Italian spirit”, reflecting the host country’s culture and history.

LA28

The Organising Committee for the Olympic Games LA28 outlined the work done over the last 12 months in areas that include development of the venue masterplan, continued commercial success, ongoing expansion of the Organising Committee team, and growing engagement with local communities.

The PlayLA youth sports programme, made possible by an agreement between the IOC and LA28 committing to invest up to USD 160 million in the lead-up to the Games, now offers low- or no-cost programming featuring around 40 sports and adaptive options with over 500,000 youngsters already enrolled.

Strategic priorities for the upcoming months were also listed, including finalising planning and initiating the delivery of the venue masterplan and the competition schedule.

The Olympic Games LA28 will be held from 14 to 30 July 2028.