This weekend, while you're complaining about the heat (even though it’s the humidity that gets you), a team of Aussies will be rugged up in northern Italy chasing their dreams.

The 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off with this morning’s Opening Ceremony in Milan. This year's Australian team might be our best shot at record-breaking success since Steven Bradbury did the unthinkable in 2002.

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games run from 6 to 22 February, with almost 3,000 athletes from 93 countries competing across northern Italy. For those of us here in Australia, that means Olympics for breakfast, snowy highlights with your morning coffee, and the rare chance to care deeply about moguls and curling in the middle of summer.

Here's what you need to know about the 2026 Winter Olympics.

If you want regular updates on the big stories from Milano Cortina straight to your inbox every weekday, don’t forget to sign up to TDA’s sports newsletter here.

Australia has sent its second-largest ever Winter Olympic team to Italy, and the squad is stacked with world-class youngsters: Of the 53 athletes representing Australia, 28 are Olympic debutants.

The youngest is 16-year-old Indra Brown. The world number one in freeski halfpipe won gold at a World Cup event earlier this year, making her the youngest Australian ever to win a World Cup medal in any winter sport.

She might’ve been born the year Instagram launched and Julia Gillard became Prime Minister (2010), but this teenager from Melbourne is a genuine medal contender. And she's not the only one, with four other teenagers also on Team Australia. Snowboarders Ally Hickman, Amelie Haskell, and Abbey Wilson are all making their Olympic debuts, while Daisy Thomas will compete in big air skiing for the first time. 

The team also breaks records in another way: Women make up 62.3% of the squad, the highest proportion of female athletes Australia has ever sent to the Winter Olympics.

Then there are the names you might already know.

Jakara Anthony is the reigning Olympic champion in moguls, currently world number one, and hunting back-to-back gold medals. If she pulls it off, the 27-year-old will become the only Australian winter athlete to have ever defended an Olympic title.

Scotty James will be competing at his fifth Olympics. Yes, fifth. The snowboarder already has a silver and bronze medal to his name, but the 31-year-old said, “The elephant in the room for me is I haven’t won a gold medal yet.”

In his recent Netflix documentary Scotty James: Pipe Dream, James explained: “I’ve worked hard. I’ve dedicated myself to my craft, so why would I approach the Olympics with any other mindset than I would the X Games or the World Championships?

Matthew Graham (moguls, which my editor told me I have to explain is a type of skiing), Jarryd Hughes (snowboard cross), and Tess Coady (snowboard slopestyle/big air) are all Olympic medallists returning with podium ambitions, bringing the kind of experience that can make the difference when the pressure is highest.

Anthony and Graham served as Australia’s flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony this morning. 

Here's where things get unusual: Milano Cortina 2026 is the most geographically spread out Winter Olympics in history. The two headline host cities - Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo - sit more than 400 kilometres apart. That's roughly the distance from Sydney to Canberra and back again.

The Games are spread across three regions of northern Italy: Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Veneto. Milan will host the indoor ice events like figure skating and ice hockey, while Cortina and the surrounding mountain venues will stage alpine skiing, freestyle events, and sliding sports. Other events are scattered across the Dolomites and Italian Alps.

It's a deliberate move away from the mega-infrastructure model. Many venues already existed, and organisers have leaned on Italy's natural winter sports landscape rather than building everything new. It's cheaper, more sustainable, and arguably more authentic. On the flipside, it means athletes and media will be doing a lot of travelling.

All in all, Australians will compete in 12 of the 16 sports on offer at these Olympics. 

Freestyle skiing and snowboarding have become a sweet spot for Australian athletes. We're now a consistent threat in these disciplines, while the Nordic countries tend to dominate cross-country skiing or biathlon.

Milano Cortina will also introduce a new Olympic sport: ski mountaineering. Often called ‘skimo’, think of it as a brutal combination of uphill endurance racing and technical downhill skiing. The first two Aussies to take on ‘skimo’ will be Phil Bellingham and Lara Hamilton.

The sport has been popular in European alpine regions for years, and its inclusion reflects the IOC's push toward endurance-based, lower-impact events that don't require purpose-built venues.

Winter Olympic success overwhelmingly follows geography and wealth. Countries like Norway, Germany, the U.S, Canada, and Austria consistently dominate the medal table. Without the mountains, climate, and infrastructure these countries have, Australia's Winter Olympic history is far shorter. We first competed in 1936, and took 58 years to win our first medal in 1994. Since then, we've collected 19 Winter Olympic medals, including six gold.

Arguably, the most famous remains Steven Bradbury's speed skating triumph at Salt Lake City in 2002. He became the first Australian (and first athlete from the Southern Hemisphere) to win individual Winter Olympic gold after every other skater crashed. His "last man standing" moment is part of Australian sporting and cultural folklore.

Australia’s most decorated Winter Olympians are snowboarder Torah Bright and moguls skier Dale Begg-Smith. Both athletes have won one gold and one silver medal across their Olympic careers.

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics will take place from 6 to 15 March. Australia typically sends a competitive para-snow sports team and punches well above its weight relative to team size. Events include para-alpine skiing, para-snowboard, and para-cross-country disciplines, with coverage and team details to be confirmed closer to the Games.

Para-triathlete and dual-sport Paralympic gold medallist Lauren Parker is set to make her Winter Paralympics debut next month. The 37-year-old impressed in her first winter sports competition in December at the Para Cross-Country World Cup in Canada.

Parker, who is paraplegic, finished eighth in the 10km interval start and 10th in the 10km mass start, less than six months after she first picked up the sport in July.

You can catch the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on Channel 9, 9Gem, 9Now, and Stan Sport. 

The closing ceremony will be on Sunday, 22 February, which is early Monday morning in Australia. By then, we'll know whether this young, talented Australian team lived up to the hype or exceeded it.

In the meantime, I’ll be sharing daily updates in TDA’s Sport Newsletter throughout the duration of the Games. To stay up to date, sign up here!

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