Alpine skiing will be divided between Cortina (for the women’s events) and Bormio (for the men) — which are separated by a 5 ½-hour drive. Livigno will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, biathlon will be in Anterselva, Nordic events will be in Val di Fiemme and ice sports in Milan.

Olympic curling champion Eve Muirhead believes Milan-Cortina 2026 will be a mix of the Winter Games’ past and future as it combines alpine resort settings with a wide geographic spread of existing venues to keep costs down.

After all, Varnier, the CEO of the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy, spent a lot of time in Utah more than two decades ago as one of the directors of his country’s last Winter Games, in Torino in 2006.

Next year’s Winter Olympics might be called the Milan Cortina Games but they will actually be staged across a large swath of northern Italy. Covering an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres (nearly 10,

The Olympic rings adorn the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio, which will be called Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, the venue for the curling discipline at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. (AP )