LAUSANNE: The sports and event programme of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will include a record number of women’s events and be the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games edition to date, with 47 per cent female participation. The programme has been approved by the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) based on the recommendations of the Olympic Programme Commission (OPC), which assessed the proposals from the International Federations (IFs).
Eight new events have been added to the programme, with a strong focus on gender equality in terms of events and female athlete quotas. This approach is in line with the objective of reducing the cost and complexity of hosting the Olympic Winter Games by using existing venues and respecting the overall athlete quota of 2,900.
The changes introduced for Milano Cortina concern four sports:
Ski mountaineering (a new Olympic sport for these Games)
Inclusion of three new events: men’s sprint, women’s sprint and mixed relay
Biathlon: no changes
Bobsleigh
Inclusion of a skeleton mixed team event
Curling: no changes
Ice hockey: no changes
Luge
Inclusion of a women’s doubles event
Replacement of one open doubles event with one men’s doubles event
Skating: no changes
Skiing
Inclusion of three new events: freestyle skiing men’s dual moguls, freestyle skiing women’s dual moguls and ski jumping women’s large hill individual
Removal of one event: Alpine mixed team parallel.
The IOC EB, following the recommendation of the OPC, decided to include men’s and women’s Alpine Combined events only provisionally, and these will be subject to further review. This will allow the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) additional time to finalise its competition format proposal and to collect feedback from the relevant stakeholders, including the FIS Athletes’ Commission. A final decision on Alpine Combined events is expected no later than April 2023.
Five out of the seven Olympic Winter IFs had put forward a request for changes from the programme at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Some 23 new events were proposed and an additional athlete quota of 359 (113 male/246 female) was requested. The IOC EB finally agreed to include eight new events, to remove one event and to replace one event. The overall athlete quota has been established at exactly 2,900, eight more than the number of athletes who competed in Beijing.
