Tech
How to Watch the 2026 Winter Olympics
Whether you’re a hardcore athletics aficionado or just nurturing a newfound love of hockey thanks to Heated Rivalry, the 2026 Winter Olympics have what you’re looking for.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place across Milan and Cortina, Italy, throughout the month of February. A few competitions start on February 4, but the opening ceremony will be held on February 6 at 2:00 pm ET and will feature performances by Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli. Following the events, there will be a closing ceremony on February 22 at 2:30 pm ET.
As in Olympics past, this year’s games will be televised in the US exclusively by NBC. You can watch if you have cable or satellite TV. Cable coverage will be across several NBC channels, including NBC local affiliates, CNBC, and the USA Network.
The Games will also be shown live on NBC’s streaming service Peacock Premium, which requires a subscription of $11 per month. If ads drive you bonkers, the ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $18 a month. (Set a calendar reminder to cancel the service after the Olympics if you’re not planning to keep watching Traitors.)
Peacock will also bring back its Olympics hub website, which may be the easiest way to find the events you’re looking for. You can search and bookmark sports or events ahead of time and get notifications for when they go live. This might be especially useful depending on what time zone you’re in, as the games are all taking place in northern Italy, which is in the GMT+1 time zone.
For a full overview of all the events, check out the official Olympics competition schedule. If you’d like to see each and every competition listed in order by event time, we have you covered.
Looking for events by sport? Below is a list of the big events for them all, along with links to the full schedules of every event.
Note: Unless specified otherwise, all times below are listed in US Eastern time.
Opening Ceremony
The three-hour-long opening ceremony will air on nearly every Olympic media outlet on Friday, February 6. Live coverage starts at 2 pm Eastern and 11 am Pacific.
Alpine Skiing
Training for alpine skiing starts on February 4, but the competitive events kick off with men’s downhill on February 7 at 5:30 am. The first medal event for women’s downhill is February 8.
Medal events occur nearly every day through February 18. Final medal games start with the first men’s slalom run on February 16.
Women’s final slalom runs start February 18.
Biathlon
Biathlon events are the closest thing the Olympic games get to a James Bond movie. Skiers zip across mountain trails and then stop to shoot a gun. What’s not to love?
You can watch all the excitement starting with a mixed relay 4 x 6 km on February 8.
All events are medal events and go until the men’s 1- km mass start on February 20 and women’s 12.5-km mass start on February 21.
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh—no, not bobsled, you philistine—events start February 12. One of the three sliding sports, bobsleigh is a team of two to four people sitting upright in a sled with their heads poking out. (As opposed to luge and skeleton, in which athletes lay on their sleds without sides or backing.)
Training events start on February 12 at 6:50 am. There are four bobsleigh medal events, starting with heat four of the women’s monobob on February 16.