At the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina from February 6 to 22, 68 Latvian athletes will start - the delegation will be the largest in the history of Latvia's participation in the Winter Olympics.
For 17 days, nearly 3000 athletes will compete for 116 sets of medals. Although the main venues for the Olympic Games will be Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, separate competitions will also take place in Predazzo, Tesero, Bormio, Livigno, as well as Antholz-Anterselva, and the closing ceremony will be held in Verona. For the first time at the Winter Olympics, the crown of Olympic champions will also be awarded to ski mountaineers.
Sweden also bid to host the 2026 Olympic Games, proposing Stockholm and Åre, and if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had decided in favor of Sweden, separate competitions would have been held on the ice track in Sigulda. However, during the voting, the Italian cities received greater support, securing the right to host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
As with the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, the upcoming Winter Olympic Games will not impose significant obstacles for the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes: under a neutral flag, athletes from these countries will be able to compete in individual sports. Since some international sports organizations have maintained disqualifications for athletes from aggressor countries for most of the season, many did not have the opportunity to qualify; however, a total of 20 neutral athletes will compete in eight sports at the Olympics, although they will not be able to participate in the opening ceremony.
In the run-up to the Olympic Games, concerns have been raised over the slow preparation of several competition venues over the past six months. In the autumn, the most trouble was caused by the restoration of the ice track in Cortina d'Ampezzo, but competitions in luge, skeleton, and bobsleigh were already held there at the beginning of the season. Just before the Olympics, discussions were sparked by the prolonged construction of the main hockey arena "Palaitalia Santa Giulia." The hockey tournament of Group B of the first division of the U-20 World Championship, which was initially planned as a test event, did not take place there; however, matches of the Italian championship were held instead. The leadership of the National Hockey League (NHL) was also informed about the delays in the construction of the arena, which even threatened to prevent its players from participating in the tournament, but there are no longer doubts about the participation of NHL players.
