The 2026 Winter Olympics Are Here! Which Events Are You Most Excited to Watch?

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, kick off this Friday, February 6. If you’re like me, you’ve already magically transformed into an expert on biathlon, luge, ice dancing, and other sports that take place on snow and ice. I cannot wait to voice my hot takes on the differences between the triple Axel and Salchow, or the proper technique for braking a bobsled.

This year’s Olympics feature a litany of thrilling storylines to follow, from the return of downhill great Lindsey Vonn, to the continued rivalry between the USA and Canada hockey teams, to Eileen Gu’s chase of another gold medal in freestyle skiing.

So, what event are you most interested to watch and why? I posed this question to Outside editors, and here’s what they said.

Ski Mountaineering

Ski Mountaineering, or Skimo, is the overachieving cousin of adventure touring skiing, which millions of Americans (myself included) got into during the pandemic. I still go skinning almost every weekend here in Colorado, and the effort of ascending on skis, plus the woowee joy of bombing down the slope, has made it my favorite winter activity.

Skimo is the newest Olympic sport, and I hope it doesn’t suffer the ignominy of Breaking’s unfortunate one-and-done debut (thanks a lot, Raygun). I’m confident it won’t, because unlike the very subjective nature of Breaking, Skimo has no scoring or judges. It is a race with a start and finish line, and he or she who crosses first wins. What goes on during the actual race is an incredible test of endurance, technique, and bravery.

Skimo racers sprint uphill on a steep course using skins on their skis for traction. They unclip from their bindings, mount their skis on their backs, and then continue to navigate a climb on foot. Then, at the top, they remove their skins, clip into their skis, and bomb down a heart-pounding descent to the bottom, all while their heart rates are pinned at max. Skimo’s debut features two events: sprint, and mixed relay. The medal races will happen on February 19 (sprint) and February 21 (mixed relay). —Frederick Dreier, articles editor, Outside 

Biathlon

Truthfully, I’m excited to watch skiing of all kinds during the Olympics, but when asked to choose one discipline, I have to side with the Biathlon. It is truly one of those sports that makes you scratch your head and ask how you even get into that sort of thing. Sure, it has the skills and endurance of cross-country skiing, but the rifle? Where does that even come from?

I grew up cross-country skiing at Mount VanHovenberg in Lake Placid and was enamored with the Biathlon arena. Watching skiers sprint in, then lie on the floor, heart still pounding, and attempt to hit the target perfectly was better than anything I’d ever seen before. I think the complexity of having your heart rate so high and then attempting to shoot with little margin for error can be lost on viewers if you’ve never cross-country skied before. It’s really intense! Oh, and the funny tape all over their face? That’s so athletes don’t get frostbite. Races will go from Feb.8 to Feb.21. —Jamie Aranoff, digital editor, SKI

Women’s Downhill Skiing

I’ll be watching the women’s downhill with bells on, especially with Lindsey Vonn in the gate. She crashed hard in Crans-Montana and was airlifted out with a torn ACL just over a week before the start of the Games, but the No. 1 comeback queen announced she’s still prepping to race and ready for a fight. Because that’s what Lindsey does.

Whoever is in the start gate, this moment is thrilling because women’s downhill is absurdly competitive right now. This World Cup season has delivered rotating podiums, razor-thin margins often decided by hundredths of a second, and speeds pushing 75–85 mph on true fall-line tracks. Racers like Sofia Goggia, Lara Gut-Behrami, Federica Brignone, Corinne Suter, and Breezy Johnson are charging with a mix of aggression and precision that feels like the discipline at its absolute peak.

And thank god the Olympics are finally back where downhill belongs: Cortina d’Ampezzo. Real mountains. Real snow. Real ski history.

Cortina hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics and helped define alpine racing as we know it, and now it welcomes the sport home again. It is a refreshing change from the duct tape, cardboard vibes, and “trust us, this is totally a ski hill” energy of recent Games.

I’m rooting for Lindsey, but no matter what, the women’s downhill is going to be fast, fearless, and unforgettable.
—Sierra Shafer, editorial director, lifestyle

Speed Skating

I may be showing my age here, but Apolo Ohno was all the rage in my preteen years and sparked a deep love for speed skating that I didn’t know was possible. Ice skating in all its forms–from figure skating to speed racing and hockey battling—is impressive because of the added balance and movement challenges it brings.

And then, of course, my inner ice princess loves everything about figure skating. Sparkly costumes, dazzling moves, and pure athletic feats? Sign me up—uhm, to watch, that is. Definitely not as a participant.
—Madison Dapcevich, associate editor, Outside

Cross Country Skiing

Downhill skiing’s far less sexy and far more sweaty older sibling, cross-country skiing consistently delivers some of the most thrilling, high-octane competition in the winter Olympics. As an endurance athlete, there is no way I’m telling you this with any bias. And as an American, this has felt increasingly true over the past couple Olympic cycles and the ascendance of the U.S. cross-country ski team.

That rise is largely thanks to the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, when Jessie Diggins dug deeper than the most determined dog on earth to muscle her way past powerhouse Norway and, along with teammate Kikkan Randall, win the team sprint competition—the first Olympic gold medal in U.S. Nordic skiing history. She went on to earn a silver and bronze in 2022 and a world championship title in 2023, and she’s back for one last dance in Milan-Cortina this winter. She may be known for her effervescent personality, dance moves, and face glitter, but don’t be fooled. She is also a killer on the race course, and she kicked off her final campaign about as successfully as possible this winter by winning the sport’s most prestigious stage race, Tour de Ski.

With no less than 12 events spread out over the course of the Games, cross-country skiing is the winter Olympics equivalent of summer’s swimming or track and field, providing days on end of sporting comfort food. It starts with the 10K on February 7, ends with the 50K—yes, you read that right) on February 22, and dishes out every derivation of sprint, relay, and ski type in between. It is, in other words, a recipe for heartbreak, redemption, and more spandex than you could ever hope to see. —Abby Levene, senior editor, Run 

Freestyle Skiing

The U.S. Ski Team has incredible depth at Halfpipe and Big Air—these athletes just keep outdoing themselves. Nick Goepper and Alex Hall on the men’s side and Svea Irving on the women’s team are poised to have incredible runs in Milan-Cortina. I also think that these events are just so fun to watch, there’s so much stoke among the athletes and the spectators. You never know what ridiculous, gravity-defying trick someone’s going to debut next! —Samantha Berman, Executive Editor, SKI

Bobsled

Let’s just get this out of the way: I am going to talk about the movie Cool Runnings. Like every other American child who grew up in the nineties, I watched the hit Disney film about the Jamaican national bobsled team and its underdog run at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Besides it being my introduction to a highlight of Canadian history (the career of John Candy, Cool Runnings was the first time that I learned about bobsled. The sport is more exciting and, frankly, terrifying that we give it credit for. ( U.S. bobsledder Kris Horn recently had to wrangle his four-man sled alone after the rest of his team fell out.)

For the Cortina Games, Jamaica will be competing in the four-person event—just the second time it has since 1998—. The men’s team is piloted by a bobsledder named Shane Pitter. The women’s monobob sledder Mica Moore is also competing for Jamaica. Pitter says he first watched Cool Runnings after becoming a competitive bobsledder. He says he hopes to do one better than the original crew by winning the country’s first Olympic medal in the sport. I’ll be watching and cheering for him.—Adam Roy, editor-in-chief, Backpacker

The Opening Ceremony

Okay, I know this isn’t technically a sporting event, but my favorite thing to watch at the Olympics is the opening ceremony.

The Parade of Nations gets me every time. I love the spectacle of it. The pageantry, the performances, the slightly chaotic energy of that many athletes walking in behind their flags, all of them arriving at the same place after wildly different journeys.

There’s a lot wrong with the Olympic Games, and a lot wrong with the world right now. But at their best, the Olympics still stand for something that feels really good. It’s a reminder that people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds can come together with a shared purpose, respect for one another, and big dreams. It’s not about winning yet. It’s about peace and unity through sport, and about what people are capable of when they commit fully to something. The opening ceremony captures that better than anything else. —Sierra Shafer, editorial director, Lifestyle

What Winter Olympics events are you planning to watch this year, and why? Feel free to leave your answers in the comments section of this story.