How To Watch The 2026 Winter Olympics
Whether you’re a hardcore athletics aficionado or just nurturing a newfound love of hockey thanks to Heated Rivalry, the 2026 Winter Olympics have what you’re looking for.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place across Milan and Cortina, Italy, throughout the month of February. A few competitions start on February 4, but the opening ceremony will be held on February 6 at 2:00 pm ET and will feature performances by Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli. ing the events, there will be a closing ceremony on February 22 at 2:30 pm ET.
As in Olympics past, this year’s games will be televised in the US exclusively by NBC. You can watch if you have cable or satellite TV. Cable coverage will be across several NBC channels, including NBC local affiliates, CNBC, and the USA Network.
The Games will also be shown live on NBC’s streaming service Peacock Premium, which requires a subscription of $11 per month. If ads drive you bonkers, the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $18 a month. (Set a calendar reminder to cancel the service after the Olympics if you’re not planning to keep watching Traitors.)
Peacock will also bring back its Olympics hub website, which may be the easiest way to find the events you’re looking for. You can search and bookmark sports or events ahead of time and get notifications for when they go live. This might be especially useful depending on what time zone you’re in, as the games are all taking place in northern Italy, which is in the GMT+1 time zone.
For a full overview of all the events, check out the official Olympics competition schedule. If you’d to see each and every competition listed in order by event time, we have you covered.
Looking for events by sport? Below is a list of the big events for them all, along with links to the full schedules of every event.
Note: Unless specified otherwise, all times below are listed in US Eastern time.
Opening Ceremony
The three-hour-long opening ceremony will air on nearly every Olympic media outlet on Friday, February 6. Live coverage starts at 2 pm Eastern and 11 am Pacific.
Alpine Skiing
Training for alpine skiing starts on February 4, but the competitive events kick off with men’s downhill on February 7 at 5:30 am. The first medal event for women’s downhill is February 8.
Medal events occur nearly every day through February 18. Final medal games start with the first men’s slalom run on February 16.
Women’s final slalom runs start February 18.
Biathlon
Biathlon events are the closest thing the Olympic games get to a James Bond movie. Skiers zip across mountain trails and then stop to shoot a gun. What’s not to love?
You can watch all the excitement starting with a mixed relay 4 x 6 km on February 8.
All events are medal events and go until the men’s 1- km mass start on February 20 and women’s 12.5-km mass start on February 21.
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh—no, not bobsled, you philistine—events start February 12. One of the three sliding sports, bobsleigh is a team of two to four people sitting upright in a sled with their heads poking out. (As opposed to luge and skeleton, in which athletes lay on their sleds without sides or backing.)
Training events start on February 12 at 6:50 am. There are four bobsleigh medal events, starting with heat four of the women’s monobob on February 16.
The final medal event for 2-man bobsleigh teams starts on February 16. The final medal event for the 2-woman bobsleigh teams is February 21. The final medal event for the 4-man teams is February 22.
Cross-Country Skiing
Cross-country events start with the women’s 1-km skiathlon on February 7. Medal events continue intermittently from February 7 until the final 50-km mass start classic.
The men’s 50-km mass start classic final is on February 21.
The women’s 50-km mass start classic final is on February 22.
Curling
Curling is the honorable bloodsport of legends in which frenzied icemongers compete to furiously scrape rakes across a frozen tundra ahead of a sliding disc. It’s bocce ball, but frigid.
Curling kicks off on February 4 with a mixed doubles round robin session between Sweden and South Korea at 1:05 pm.
There are two medal matches on February 10 for mixed doubles: 2:05 pm for bronze and 12:05 pm for gold.
The remaining medal matches take place from February 20 to February 22.
The men’s curling gold medal match is February 21 at 1:05 pm.
The women’s curling gold medal match is February 22 at 5:05 am.
Figure Skating
Olympic figure skating kicks off with an ice dance team event on February 6. Medal ceremonies start on February 8 with a team event of men’s single skating.
Women’s single skating begins February 6. The final medal event is February 19.
Men’s single skating begins February 8. The final medal event is February 13.
Pair skating starts February 6. The final medal event is February 16.
Rhythm dance is February 9.
The free ice dance medal event is February 11.
Freestyle Skiing
Sick 360, broski! Freestyle skiing includes lots of skiing events from moguls to halfpipe and aerial spins and flips. Medal events start February 9 and will be held just about every day until the super big halfpipe finales on February 21. Radical!
Freeski
Women’s freeski slopestyle starts February 7 and goes to a final event on February 9.
Men’s freeski slopestyle qualifiers start February 7 and end with a medal final on February 10.
Moguls
Women’s moguls begin February 10 and end in a medal final February 11. Women’s dual moguls begin February 10. The small and big finals are February 14.
Men’s moguls begin February 10 and end with a medal final on February 12. Men’s dual moguls begin February 15. The small final is also February 15.
Big Air
Women’s freeski big air qualification runs start February 14. Medal final runs start February 16.
Men’s freeski big air qualification runs start February 15. Medal final runs start February 17.
Aerials
Women’s aerials qualifiers start February 17. Finals start on February 18.
Men’s aerials qualifiers start February 17. Medal final runs start February 19.
Mixed team aerials finals start February 21.
Ski Cross
Women’s ski cross events are February 20.
Men’s ski cross events are February 21.
Halfpipe
Women’s halfpipe qualifiers start February 19. The final runs are February 21.
Men’s halfpipe qualifiers and final runs are February 20.
Ice Hockey
Hello to all you Heated Rivalry fans who immediately Ctrl+F’d right here. Ice hockey gets off to a strong start with the women’s preliminary round that is Sweden vs. Germany on February 5.
Women’s playoff quarterfinals start February 13. Semifinals start February 16. Women’s bronze and gold medal games are on February 19.
Men’s preliminary games start February 11 with Slovakia vs. Finland. Men’s qualifying playoffs start February 17. Men’s semifinals are on February 20. The men’s bronze medal game is on February 21. The men’s gold medal game is on February 22.
Luge
Luge is the sliding sport in which single athletes or teams of two slide supine and feet first down an icy, twisty chute.
Luge runs start on February 4 and go every day until February 12. The first medal match is for the men’s singles run on February 8. The women’s singles medal match is on February 10. Doubles Run medal competitions are February 11. Team Relay medals are February 12.
Nordic Combined
A mashup of ski jumping and cross country, Nordic Combined is a sport that makes sure its participants don’t have any breath left to take away when they leap dozens of feet through the air.
Nordic combined events start on February 9. There are three medal events, two 10-km cross country medal events on February 11 and February 17. Cross country team sprint events are February 19.
Short Track Speed Skating
Do you watching people haul ass across a frozen pond while wearing knives on their feet? Good, short track speed skating is right for you. Heats, quarterfinals, and a mixed team relay medal event start on February 10.
From there, every day has multiple heats leading up to medal matches every other day until the final races on February 20.
Note that this is a different event from what the Olympics just calls speed skating. Short track skating is a shorter race than standard speed skating and features skaters competing directly with each other on the track rather than just trying to get the best time as in speed skating. (Details for speed skating events are below.)
Skeleton
While the name might conjure images of the spooky, scary kind of skeletons, the sport is terrifying even if there are no bones around. Skeleton is similar to bobsleigh and luge, but with a couple twists. A single skeletoneer comes in with a sprinting start, hops face-down on their sled, then shoots head-first down a curvy, icy chute, reaching speeds of 80 mph (130 kmh).
Skelton plunges start with training sessions on February 9. Medal events start with a men’s heat on February 13 and a women’s heat on February 14. The final medal event is a mixed team competition on February 15 at noon.
Ski Jumping
If you’re eager to vicariously live out your inner Eddie the Eagle, skiers will start flinging themselves off of huge ramps on February 5.
The first medal events start with the women’s normal individual competition on February 7. Events continue nearly every day except for one gap day on February 11. The men’s long hill individual final round is on February 14. The women’s long hill individual final round is on February 15. The men’s super team final round is February 16.
Ski Mountaineering
Mountaineering is a brand new sport in the 2026 Olympics, finally bringing an answer to that age old question: “What if skiing, but up?” Competitors race to climb steep hills on their skis before speeding down again. A BYO chair-lift party, if you will.
Ski mountaineering takes place in Bormio, a town in the Italian Alps. There are medals for sprint race and mixed relay competitions. For the sprint races, participants ascend an uphill course in three stages; two in which they have skis strapped to their feet. For the middle stage, they remove the skis, carry them on their backpacks, and hike up some stairs on foot. Finally, there’s a downhill dash to the finish line.
There are two days of ski mountaineering events, featuring multiple qualifying heats per day. Sprint finals are February 19, with the women’s sprint final at 7:55 am and men’s sprint final at 8:55 am.
A mixed relay medal event is February 21 starting at 7:30 am.
Snowboard
Snowboarding starts on February 5. Medal events begin on February 7 with the men’s big air events. Women’s big air event finals are February 9.
Women’s slopestyle final runs are February 17. Men’s slopestyle final runs are February 18.
Speed Skating
Speed skating, a separate event from short track speed skating (see above), determines its winners in a time-based system. Matches see two skaters racing at the same time, but they’re vying for the best time rather than trying to beat one another in that specific race. The courses are also usually longer than short track skating.
Speed skating starts with the women’s 3,000 meter medal competition on February 7 and the men’s 3,000 meter race on February 8.
There are 12 days of medal events total, ending February 21 with the men’s mass start final at 10:40 am and women’s mass start final at 11:15 am.