The start of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy is days away.

The torch relay is nearly complete and some of the top athletes are already making headlines. There are 16 sports in all, including some never seen before, and 116 gold medals are waiting to be awarded.

Milan’s San Siro stadium is the venue for Friday's opening ceremony, which is usually the most viewed moment of the Games as millions around the world will watch on official broadcasters. U.S. pop star Mariah Carey, crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli are among the performers. It begins at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern).

This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history: The two primary competition sites are the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) away by road. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Milan.

Preliminary heats began on Wednesday. Check here for a daily schedule.

Key dates to know

Competition runs Feb. 4-22. Here are some of the dates to mark on your calendar:

Feb. 4: Competition begins (curling).

Feb. 6: Opening ceremony.

Feb. 7: First gold medal events.

Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill.

Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating.

Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom.

Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.

Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony.

How to watch

Dozens of countries will stream or air each day's events, with some of them delaying broadcasts until prime time depending on the time zone. That will be the case in the U.S., where Eastern time is six hours behind Milan and Cortina. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock.

Top storylines

Athletes to watch: Two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, opened the World Cup season in dominant form. Vonn still plans to compete despite rupturing her ACL last week. Eileen Gu is back in freestyle skiing, as is Chloe Kim in snowboarding. NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014 so watch for the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.

Venues: All eyes are on the hockey arenas in Milan, which were still under construction in January; the main rink will be about 3 feet shorter than NHL and PWHL players are used to. And the athletes’ village in Cortina is a collection of more than 350 mobile homes.

Russian athletes: A handful of Russians are competing as neutral athletes — after they were cleared by an independent review to ensure that they have not publicly supported the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.

What’s new: Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics