Athlete turned food critic on TikTok, six Olympic titles for Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, dog on the track… From February 6 to 22, the 2026 Winter Olympics galvanized the public and generated, as with each edition, their share of surprises.
The Olympic Winter Games Milan-Cortina 2026 took place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in the heart of northern Italy, with a spectacular opening ceremony at the San Siro stadium in Milan and an emotional closing in the Roman arena in Verona.
Rather than in a single city, the competitions were spread over several sites between Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige, bringing together more than 3,500 athletes from 93 nations to compete in 16 Olympic sports such as biathlon, bobsleigh, ice hockey, figure skating, cross-country skiing, snowboarding or even ski-mountaineering. These Olympics have thus lit the winter spark in a unique Italian setting.
Among the commercial partners were some thirty official Italian and international sponsors who supported the organization and infrastructure of the Games.
Some notable victories
The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics were marked by XXL performances and athletes who stacked the medals.
In cross-country skiing, the Norwegian Johannes Høsflot Klæbo achieved one of the greatest exploits of these Games with six Olympic titles, dominating sprint, pursuit and relay, without giving any chance to his rivals. On the ice, the U.S. hit hard in hockey: the men’s team won gold after an overtime final against Canada, while the women’s U.S. team was also crowned Olympic champion, scoring a historic double for the country.
In figure skating (individual women), the American Alysa Liu won an Olympic title, to which she added a team silver medal, confirming her status as the new star of the discipline. In alpine skiing, Italian Federica Brignone won gold in the women’s giant slalom and added a silver medal in the combined event, giving Italy two major home podiums. Finally, the Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by winning gold in men’s alpine skiing giant slalom, a unique but highly symbolic victory, as it is Brazil’s first winter Olympic title.
6 anecdotes and highlights from the Olympic Games of Milan-Cortina 2026
The culinary critical curlist
@curlingcelloguy Cortina Olympics Food Review, Episode 1: Pizza 🍕 #olympics #foodreview #curling #milanocortina2026 ♬ original sound – Ben Richardson
Throughout the Winter Olympics, American curlist Ben Richardson caused a sensation on TikTok by posting humorous food reviews about the dishes at the Olympic restaurant. In his videos, the athlete amused himself by noting the dishes of this sports canteen, from focaccia to pasta and tiramisu. The joke could have been left to his community, but Ben Richardson generated millions of views and many amused comments by this parallel gastronomic competition. A new career in the making?
A skier dog
During the epilogue of the team sprint freestyle qualifications in cross-country skiing, a dog stole the show from the athletes by barging onto the snowy track of Tesoro. Answering the name of Nazgul, the four-legged animal escaped from its owner’s vigilance during a walk and joined the course, amusing all the spectators and athletes! He was quietly escorted by the organizers before joining his master.
Indiscreet confessions live
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
On 10 February, after winning the bronze medal in the biathlon individual, the Norwegian Sturla Laegrid may have let his emotions get too much carried away. Filmed, he confided in his personal life by confessing live on television that he had cheated on his partner and that he regretted it bitterly. « There is someone with whom I wanted to share this moment, even if I don’t think she watched the race… Six months ago, I met the love of my life. The most wonderful person in the world. And three months ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life: ‘I cheated on her,’ he explained, not without surprising the interviewer and the internet users. His former partner did not particularly appreciate this surge of regret and love and said she found herself in a position that could not be more delicate and painful during an exchange of text messages with a journalist from the Norwegian media outlet Verdens Gang.
Fragile medals
Barely handed over to the winners, they find themselves on the ground. Some athletes thus received a medal which was quickly removed from their cord, placed around the neck of the winners. Jumping for joy at his victory, triple Olympic cross-country skiing vice-champion Mathias Desloges felt something fly around him before noticing that his medal on the ground had landed on the ground, rather damaged. Anyway, the athlete picked it up to put it in his pocket.
Spectacular falls, other dramatic
The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games offered spectacular performances… but also memorable and dramatic falls. In the ski half-pipe, Eileen Gu and Finley Melville Ives had their race brutally interrupted by impressive falls, while on the bobsleigh, Jakob Mandlbauer narrowly avoided injury after overturning at high speed. Even on the ice, Camila Celiere in short-track and Ilia Malinin in figure skating have experienced challenging moments, reminding that Olympic glory is sometimes played on a thread between chance and gravity.
Greedy athletes!
Intensive sport, winter cold, stress and concentration… Participating in the Olympics seems to whet the appetite! During the competition, the athletes devoured impressive quantities of Italian specialties: no less than 1,800 meters of pizza, 365 kg of pasta every day, and nearly a ton of Grana Padano. A real feast on an Olympic scale!
Read also : Milano Cortina 2026: Olympic apotheosis at the Opera
Featured photo : Milan Cortina 2026
