From Milan to Cortina, a glance at the 2026 Winter Olympics venues

MILAN (AP) – With 100 days to go, northern Italy is gearing up to host the Milan-Cortina Olympics, the most spread-out Winter Games in history.

The two main clusters of the Games are Milan – the beating heart of Italy’s industrial north – and Cortina d’Ampezzo, an upscale winter resort in the Dolomites mountain range. Visitors should expect a full day of travel between the two locations, which are more than 400 kilometers (250) miles apart by road.

In addition, athletes will compete in three other mountain clusters, while the closing ceremony will be held in Verona, the largest city in the northeastern Veneto region.

The games will mostly make use of existing infrastructure, though some venues are being renovated or built from scratch. Here’s a closer look at the venues:

SAN SIRO STADIUM: The opening ceremony will be held in Milan’s iconic 80,000-seat San Siro stadium, home of the city’s two famous soccer teams – AC Milan and Inter Milan. It will be a last hurrah for the historic venue, which is set to be demolished and replaced by a new teams-owned stadium after the games.

SANTAGIULIA ICE HOCKEY ARENA: The timeline is tight for the new 16,000-seat arena that will serve as the main hockey venue for the games. A test event scheduled for December had to be moved, but organisers are confident that it will be completed by the end of the year. New test events have been set for Jan. 9-11 – less than a month before the first puck is dropped at the Olympics. The multipurpose facility, which is being built by private investors, is slated to become Italy’s largest indoor arena and is a majestic sight to those arriving into the southeastern periphery of Milan.

ICE PARK: While the ice hockey finals will be held in the Santagiulia Arena, some matches will take place in the Fiera Milano exhibition venue, which will also host the speed skating. The trade fair complex, which opened in 2005 in the northwest of Milan, will use temporary structures for the games. The so-called Ice Park will occupy four pavilions of the huge exhibition center and comprise the Speed Skating Stadium and the Rho Ice Hockey Arena, which still needs to be completed. The Speed Skating Stadium was delivered in August and the work to lay down the ice was set to start on Wednesday.

ICE SKATING ARENA: Short-track speed skating and figure skating events will take place in the Forum di Milano, a multipurpose facility that is mainly used for basketball, ice hockey and tennis as well as live concerts. The 12,500-capacity venue in the southwestern outskirts of Milan was opened in 1990 and renovated in 2017, the year before it hosted the figure skating world championships.

TOFANE ALPINE SKIING CENTER: Regularly referred to as the queen or the pearl of the Dolomites, Cortina hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956. The Olympia delle Tofane course will be the site of the women’s Alpine skiing next year. The iconic slope is a regular stop on the women’s World Cup circuit and also held the world championships in 2021.

CURLING OLYMPIC STADIUM: Curling will take place in the Olympic Ice Stadium, one of the legacies of the 1956 Games, when it also hosted the opening ceremony. The arena – and Cortina in general – also served as a filming location for the 1981 James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only,” starring Roger Moore.

CORTINA SLIDING CENTER: The century-old sliding center in Cortina has been completely rebuilt for the 2026 Games at a cost of 118 million euros ($123 million) amid staunch opposition from the International Olympic Committee. The timeframe was so tight that it necessitated a Plan B option that would have required moving bobsled, luge and skeleton events all the way to Lake Placid, New York. However, it appears the gamble has paid off with the IOC even saying recently that the venue has “surpassed expectations.” The track secured preliminary certification in March and test events are taking place through November. Completion of the roofing and all the facilities next to the track is scheduled for Nov. 5.

The men’s Alpine skiing will take place on the fearsome Stelvio course in Bormio, a renowned fixture on the World Cup circuit. Veteran Italian skier Christof Innerhofer told The Associated Press that he can’t remember a tougher course at the Olympics in the past 30 years. The Stelvio Ski Center will also be the venue for ski mountaineering, which will be making its Olympic debut. Bormio is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Milan.

Livigno, about an hour’s drive north of Bormio, will host the sports that are perhaps most popular among young people. Snowboarding and freestyle skiing will be held at Livigno Snow Park and Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park, with 26 medals awarded. The small town in Valtellina, near the border with Switzerland, proudly unveiled the Aerials and Moguls Park last December, boasting that it had delivered the first 2026 Olympic venue.

Surrounded by the peaks of the Dolomites, Predazzo will be a stunning setting for the ski jumping events. Predazzo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Cortina, is the most populated municipality in Val di Fiemme, an area which has a rich history of hosting Nordic skiing world championships and World Cup races. The ski jumping facility spans an area of 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet) and consists of two main ramps for international competitions as well as training ramps and other equipped spaces for athletes.

Tesero, less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Predazzo, will host the cross-country skiing events. The cross-country skiing stadium was opened in 1990, the year before the area hosted the Nordic World Ski Championships for the first time.

The biathlon competition will be held in Anterselva, nestled in the South Tyrol mountains and with 60 kilometers (40 miles) of tracks. The Anterselva Biathlon Arena has a rich history with the sport, having hosted the world championships multiple times since the 1970s. It also hosts World Cup races every year. The town itself, which is near the border with Austria, has a unique cultural heritage: more than 98% of the population speak German as their mother tongue.

The closing ceremony will take place at the historic Verona Arena, a large Roman amphitheater built almost 2,000 years ago that is mainly used to host large-scale opera performances. It is an imposing presence in the main piazza of Verona, which is a UNESCO world heritage city. Originally built to host 30,000 spectators in ancient Roman times, it currently has a capacity of around half that for its world-famous summer festival. About 15,000 spectators will be allowed for the closing ceremony on Feb. 22.