With the new ice hockey arena in Milan and the new ice rink in Cortina both finished just in time, the 25th Winter Olympics can begin.
Cortina d’Ampezzo is hosting the Olympics for the second time. Seventy years ago, in 1956, the seventh edition of the Games was held entirely in the winter sports resort in the Italian Dolomites.
What are the key dates and sports for the 2026 Winter Games?
The Games will officially open on February 6 at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milan, better known as San Siro, where Inter and AC Milan usually play football. The arena can seat 75,000 spectators. The first competitions will begin two days before the opening ceremony, on February 4, with curling.
A total of around 2,900 athletes (47% of whom are women) from more than 90 countries will compete for a total of 116 gold, silver and bronze medals. Germany will be represented by 188 winter athletes, more than ever before at the Winter Games.
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Ski mountaineering will be an Olympic sport for the first time. The competitions will mostly be held on circular courses. The athletes will climb the slope with the bottom of their skis covered in climbing skins, synthetic fabric that prevents sliding down. At the top, they will remove the skins and then ski down.
Qualifying for the ski mountaineering took place in Austria in 2025Image: Uwe Lein/dpa/picture alliance
Ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating, and short track will take place in Milan, while women’s alpine skiing, luge, bobsleigh, skeleton and curling will be in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Other locations in northeastern Italy are also included. The biathlon in Antholz, Livigno will host freestyle skiing and snowboarding, and Bormio and Val di Fiemme will share men’s alpine skiing and ski mountaineering. This means that the Games will not be short-distance: Milan and Antholz are 350 kilometers (217 miles) apart.
The 2026 Winter Games will end on February 22 with the closing ceremony in the evocative ampitheater known as Verona Arena, which has a capacity of 12,000 and lies to the east of Milan.
Are Russian and Belarusian athletes allowed to compete?
As was the case at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, only individual athletes are allowed to compete — and only if they have no ties to the army or security services, and have not publicly spoken out in favor of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Only then are they considered “neutral.” In addition, they must have qualified for the Olympics in their respective sports. A three-member IOC review panel grants any final permission to compete.
According to information from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), 13 winter athletes from Russia and seven from Belarus are expected to participate (as of January 29, 2026). At the Summer Games in Paris in 2024, 15 athletes from Russia and 17 from Belarus were admitted as neutral athletes.
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Freestyle skier Hanna Huskowa from Belarus, who won gold in 2018 (picture) and silver in 2022 in the aerials (jumping) discipline, is also allowed to compete in Italy.Image: Angelika Warmuth/dpa/picture alliance
In December, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the exclusion of “neutral” Russian and Belarusian skiers from Olympic qualifications.
At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, 216 Russians were only allowed to compete under a neutral flag, but for a different reason: the state-sponsored doping system in Russia had been uncovered. The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, four days after the end of the Games in Beijing.
Who will be responsible for security during the Games?
According to the IOC, security is “the responsibility of the host country’s authorities, who will work closely with the participating delegations.” Reportedly, around 6,000 police and other security personnel will be on duty. By comparison, more than 50,000 were deployed at the Games in Paris.
The announcement that officials from the controversial US immigration agency ICE would also be sent to the Olympic Games to ensure the safety of US guests of honor made headlines around the world. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have announced their visit, but President Donald Trump has not yet done so.
However, the US ambassador to Italy, Tilman J. Fertitta, said that the ICE officers would be deployed “only in an advisory and intelligence capacity, without patrolling or enforcement measures.”
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This is likely in reference to the Homeland Security Investigations unit, which is a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes. It frequently sends officers to events like the Olympics to help with security, and they are completely seperate from those currently at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US. Nevertheless, the news of any ICE presence has increased tension in Italy.
How are the doping controls carried out?
As in Beijing in 2022, the IOC has commissioned the Switzerland-based International Testing Authority (ITA) to carry out doping tests in most sports. Pre-Olympic controls began at the end of October, with a further 3,000 tests planned during the Games in Milan and Cortina. For the first time, baggage checks will be carried out at airports with the aim of seizing suspicious substances.
However, the world federations for skiing, biathlon, ice hockey and curling are not cooperating with the ITA, but are organizing doping controls in their respective sports themselves.
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Urine and blood samples will be stored for up to ten years so that doping offenders can still be exposed later using possible new analysis methods. The CAS will have its own office on site during the Games so that it can quickly rule on doping offenses.
Will the 2026 Games be a success?
That depends on many factors. According to the organizing committee, more than half of the tickets had already been sold by the beginning of November 2025. Prices range from €30 ($36) to €2,900 for the most expensive ticket for the closing ceremony in Verona. Atmosphere will likely play a key role in gauging the success of the Games.
For particularly popular events such as the alpine skiing competitions, only expensive tickets, or so-called hospitality packages, are still available. For €3,500 you get a ticket, brunch and other special services.
Concerns about shady deals ahead of 2026 Winter Olympics
It remains to be seen whether the organizers will ultimately be in the black at the end of the month. The budget for the Olympic and subsequent Paralympic Games in Milan and Cortina is around €1.6 billion. According to official figures, the last Winter Games in Beijing cost €3.3 billion, but researchers at Oxford University in England calculated in a study that the cost was more than double that amount (€7.33 billion).
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shane Wright scored twice to lead the Seattle Kraken to a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson also scored and Chandler Stephenson and Frederick Gaudreau each had two assists for the Kraken, who have won five of their last six games. Joey Daccord made 25 saves.
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Andrei Kuzmenko scored both of Los Angeles’ goals and Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves.
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The Kings took a 1-0 lead at 7:42 of the first period when Kuzmenko scored on the power play.
Wright tied it at 1 at 9:16 on a backhander for his first goal of the game and Larsson put Seattle up 2-1 at 10:14 on a one-timer. Dunn made it 3-1 on the power play at 15:21.
Kuzmenko cut it to 3-2 on the power play at 10:27 of the second period, but Wright gave the Kraken a two-goal lead again with a power-play score at 5:50 of the third.
Ivan Barbashev scored a goal for the fourth straight game, and Cole Reinhardt, Pavel Dorofayev and Alexander Holtz also had goals for the Knights. Mark Stone had a pair of assists.
Akira Schmid made 21 saves, including a spectacular stop on Vancouver’s Pierre-Olivier Joseph midway through the second period when he dove across the crease to snag the puck with his glove and preserve a 3-1 lead.
Elias N. Pettersson and Joseph had goals for the Canucks, who have now lost three in a row and six of their last seven games and remain in last place in the NHL. Teddy Blueger had a pair of assists and Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves.
After a scoreless first period, things heated up in the second when the teams combined to score on four straight shots, with all four goals coming in a span of 2:30 and Vegas taking a 3-1 lead.
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With two third-period goals, the Golden Knights now have 75 third-period goals this season, the most in the NHL. Eichel has 21 multipoint games this season.
Canucks: At home against Winnipeg on Feb. 25.
Golden Knights: Host Los Angeles on Thursday night.
As much as the mood has undoubtedly improved this season, the root causes of Cardiff’s recent troubles have not simply disappeared.
Tan remains a divisive figure, as do chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo.
They were the target of numerous protests last season, some of which saw hordes of supporters marching to Cardiff City Stadium, holding banners and singing songs demanding that Tan and his fellow board members leave.
Some of the ill feeling can be traced back to Tan’s highly controversial rebranding of the club’s colours from red to blue in 2012, even though he reversed the decision three years later.
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More recently, the anger relates to his perceived lack of interest, with Tan having not attended a home game for more than two years.
Then, perhaps most damningly, there is the way he, Dalman and Choo have run the club.
Cardiff at least tried a new method in their appointment of Barry-Murphy, forming a one-off sub-committee which included the club’s academy manager Gavin Chesterfield, former Swansea City sporting director Mark Allen and members of the Wasserman agency. However, the final decision still belonged to Tan.
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“They didn’t plan to get relegated,” says Perry. “And in hiring Barry-Murphy, is it really a thorough process that we’ve got to the outcome of getting him? I don’t think so.
“It’s a filtering system, a few people narrowing it down to five choices, and those five choices go then to the owner.
“The problem will always be the owner, simply because he hasn’t got that knowledge to pick out of those five. Nathan Jones was in there [on the shortlist], there were others who weren’t similar to Barry-Murphy.
“I’ll only start calling it a process if Barry-Murphy goes and the next appointment is very similar. Then it becomes a process, get another coach who puts a team out that we can identify with as supporters and is also successful.
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“But you must have knowledge of what you’re looking for. The same problems are here at this club, and they need to change for us to have success continuously.”
Given how well the Barry-Murphy appointment has gone so far, then, might Tan be convinced to use a director of football or similar on a permanent basis?
“The total opposite,” Perry says. “I think he’ll get carried away, so much so that it will reinforce his own opinion of himself, that he is the right man because of what we’re seeing now.
“He will not look at the process and put his hands up and go, ‘possibly we’re fortunate here because it wasn’t our first choice’.
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“You have to be honest, reflection is a key part of football or any big business, but when you reflect you have to be honest and you have to look at your skillset. Then you have to either improve that skillset or you bring somebody in that has those skills. Unfortunately, at City we don’t have that and that is my concern.”
There is no guarantee of an instant return to the Championship. It took Cardiff 18 years to get back to that level when they were last relegated to the third tier in 1985.
Of the 30 teams to have been in the Premier League and relegated to League One, six have never made it back to the Championship.
Given how Cardiff are going this season, they should not add to that number.
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Promotion will not fix everything, though.
“I came into this season determined to enjoy it,” says Perry.
“We’re doing well, playing a brand that we identify with and everybody’s happy.
“But you’ve only got to look around the football club and I still see the same mistakes.”
The Ben, Will and J D Hayes team at Lindsay Park believes the Blue Diamond Stakes dreams for their two-year-old Eurocanto are realigned properly now.
Post his scratch from the January 24 Blue Diamond Preview (1000m) at Caulfield, the colt was dispatched for more trials.
Eurocanto had gate issues that day, resulting in a barrier scratch.
To resume racing, the two-year-old required a clean bill from vets after being diagnosed lame in the near fore on race day, plus a stewards-approved jump-out trial.
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Eurocanto delivered in that trial last Friday at Flemington, running second over 800m to Don’t Hope Do.
J D Hayes shared relief at having the Blue Diamond aspirant primed again, with a start confirmed in Saturday’s Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at Caulfield.
Hayes would prefer Eurocanto approaching the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on February 21 at his third run this term.
The stable drew encouragement from his Flemington performance.
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“He trialled really well against the older horses, and he’ll be taking his place,” Hayes said.
“He’s back on track and I thought it was a good trial.
“He passed with flying colours, and he was on his best behaviour and hopefully he stays that way.”
Eurocanto’s sole prior race was a win in October’s Listed Maribyrnong Trial (1000m) at Flemington.
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Leading into the January 24 attempt, he trialled third at Flemington on January 2 and won at Werribee January 16.
“I don’t think he will be lacking anything for fitness on Saturday,” Hayes said.
In the Prelude’s colts and geldings’ bracket, Eurocanto is Lindsay Park’s lone runner, as Jacaranda, Medicinal and Portinari enter the fillies’ side. Punters can find plenty on the racing betting markets for the Blue Diamond Prelude.
The baseball world is mourning the loss of a player who made history with the Detroit Tigers.
Mickey Lolich, remembered as the Tigers’ hero in the 1968 World Series, has died, the Tigers announced. He was 85. Lolich is the last MLB pitcher to win three games in the World Series. He was named World Series MVP that year.
The Tigers said Lolich’s wife informed the franchise that Lolich was recently in hospice care. The cause of death was not released.
In this Oct. 3, 1968, file photo, Mickey Lolich of the Detroit Tigers pitches during the second game of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Mo.(AP Photo/File)
Lolich is No. 23 on the all-time career strikeouts list with 2,832.
Lolich was an unlikely star of the Tigers 1968 title run. During a reunion of the World Series team, he recalled how manager Mayo Smith had sent him to the bullpen for much of August. He returned to the Tigers’ starting rotation and was 6-1 in the final weeks.
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“I was having a few problems, but I had been a starting pitcher ever since 1964,” said Lolich, who was upset about the bullpen move. “I remember telling him, ‘If we win this thing this year, it’s going to be because of me.’ But I was only talking about the season. I wasn’t talking about the World Series.
“I got my revenge back in the World Series.”
Mickey Lolich, pitcher of Detroit Tigers, poses for a photo in March 1968. (AP Photo, File)
Lolich pitched Game 7 after only two days rest. He figured he would get a Corvette from General Motors for being the Series MVP but had to settle for a Dodge Charger GT because Chrysler was the sponsor in 1968.
“Nothing against Chargers, nothing at all,” Lolich said in his book, “Joy in Tigertown.” “It’s just that I already had two of them in my driveway.”
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Since Lolich, only two pitchers have won three games in a single World Series — Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025. But they pitched fewer innings and got their third victories in relief.
Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates March 30, 2018, in Detroit.(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
WWE CCO Triple H is leading the creative side of the business. Often, thanks to Unreal, HHH is seated at the table with writers, pitching ideas. The concern is who he passes the baton to in his absence. Now, it seems the former WWE head writer has a clear vision: Robert Roode.
In a post on X, Vince Russo has sung Roode’s praises. He states that the former US Champion is the only guy who stands out in management. The retired Canadian wrestler currently works for WWE as a match producer. Robert,, better known as ‘Bobby’ is a real and pure professional who carries himself perfectly. If it were for Russo being the decision-maker, Roode would lead WWE into the future.
Thanks for the submission!
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The veteran took a moment to humble the former NXT Champion, too. Russo cites him as certainly not the Greatest Worker in the History of the Business. However, neither is he a gimmick nor an ego-maniac and surely not a ‘Walrus’. Roode is the GUY.
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Why Did WWE Waste This Year’s Royal Rumble? Find Out!
The 49-year-old was still pretty much active till mid-2022. However, later that year, Roode underwent neck surgery. In May 2023, he underwent another. In the next few months, he took on the role of a match producer and retired from wrestling.
Robert Roode’s resume in WWE
The first title Roode won was the NXT Championship. Known exceptionally for his workhorse nature and technical abilities in TNA, the Stamford-based promotion trusted him. Within a year of his debut, he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the NXT title in 2017. Later on the main roster, he won the US Championship in 2018 in a tournament.
Later that year, the Glorious star captured the RAW Tag Team Championships with Chad Gable. Roode and Gable defeated Authors of Pain. Next year, he teamed up with Dolph Ziggler, Dirty Dawgs. They defeated Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman for the same titles. In 2021, his last reign as a ‘Dirty Dawg’ came as he held the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
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ONE bantamweight MMA contender Carlo Bumina-ang of the Philippines said Marcos Aurelio should keep his head up high in the aftermath of their ONE Fight Night 39 showdown.
‘The Bull’ pushed Aurelio from the ranks of the unbeaten on Jan. 23, handing the Brazilian his first career defeat with a crushing TKO finish inside Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium.
The 31-year-old bucked a slow first round and found his opening in the ensuing frame, dropping Aurelio multiple times with ferocious punches to get back in the winning column.
Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more
In his ONE Fight Night 39 post-fight interviews, Bumina-ang graciously commended the talented 21-year-old.
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The Team Lakay standout said Aurelio has a bright future and will bounce back from this loss.
“He’s still young and he can do more in this sport. And I know he will come back, like I said, I know he will come back stronger, and he will keep on pursuing his dream.”
“I’m just so happy that I was the first to stop him, but that’s what we always do, you know? We stop our opponents.”
Carlo Bumina-ang says Marcos Aurelio showed a lot of heart
Carlo Bumina-ang hit Marcos Aurelio with everything he’s got. Somehow, the 21-year-old survived the first wave of punishment and tried to regain his bearings.
‘The Bull’ shared with Nick Atkin of The Bangkok Post:
“Yeah, he was already stumbling. The referee gave him a few seconds to give him a chance, but he didn’t recover, so it needs to be stopped, or he would get more damage.”
North American fans can stream the ONE Fight Night 39 replay on demand via Prime Video.
Shakur Stevenson thrust his name into pound-for-pound contention with a statement victory over Teofimo Lopez on Saturday night, and the Newark-born superstar has declared his belief that there is only one active fighter on the same level as him.
Stevenson’s victory saw him become the third-youngest four-division world champion in boxing history, with the 28-year-old getting his hands on the WBO super-lightweight world title without hardly breaking a sweat.
However, without becoming undisputed, as the likes of Inoue, Dmitry Bivol, Canelo Alvarez, Devin Haney and Artur Beterbiev have, it is tough to argue how Stevenson can sit above them all in the rankings.
Yet, in an interview with Cigar Talk, Stevenson revealed that he sees himself as the ‘best fighter on the planet’, with unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk being the only active boxer that is on his level.
“I am number one, to me, the best fighter on the planet. The only other fighter that I see in boxing right now that I see and think [he is on my level is] Usyk, that is at – the art of hitting and don’t get hit at the same time – boxing.”
After months of speculation, Panarin was finally dealt to the LA Kings on Wednesday. As part of the transaction, the Blueshirts received forward prospect Liam Greentree along with a conditional third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft.
Artemi Panarin waived his full no-movement clause to join the Kings, while the Rangers retained 50% of his salary, as he was in the final year of his seven-year, $81.5 million contract. Panarin signed a two-year, $22 million extension ($11M AAV) with the Kings immediately after the trade.
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Many Rangers fans on X (formerly called Twitter) were furious with the return they received in the deal. One tweeted:
“What a f****** disgrace. Chris Drury is the worst GM of all time. Fire him for his sabotage. f*** Chris Drury.”
@NYRangers WHAT A FUCKING DISGRACE CHIRS DRURY IS THE WORST GM OF ALL TIME FIRE HIM FOR HIS SABOTAGE FUCK CHRIS DRURY
“We don’t care. Fire your GM. He sucks,” another opined.
“What a garbage return. Well, that should be Drury’s job. He needs to be the next one out the door. Wishing Panarin all the best wherever he goes. I hope Drury has screwed the NYR faithful for the last time,” another chimed in.
LA Kings GM shares his thoughts on Artemi Panarin’s trade
Following the trade, LA Kings GM Ken Holland addressed the media to share his thoughts. He said that Artemi Panarin did not want to be a rental and that the Kings are happy he waived his no-movement clause for LA.
“Obviously, we made the deal today to make our team better,” Kings general manager Ken Holland said via NHL.com. “We signed him to a two-year extension. We weren’t going to do it as a rental. He didn’t want to go anywhere as a rental. He wanted to find a home, so we’re thrilled that he wanted to waive the no-trade (clause) to come to LA.”
He added:
“We’re happy that we were able to get him to a two-year extension, and after two years, I’m hoping that we’re working on another extension, but (I’ll) worry about that down the road.”
Artemi Panarin spent seven seasons with the Rangers. He has accumulated 57 points through 19 goals and 38 assists in 52 games, making him the leading scorer for the Blueshirts this season.
City progressed to meet Arsenal at Wembley on 22 March by beating Newcastle 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium, and 5-1 on aggregate.
But defender Guehi, a £20m buy from Crystal Palace, was not allowed to play as he was not signed in time for the first leg, which also rules him out of the final.
He said: “Hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup [EFL] that Marc Guehi can play the final. I don’t understand why he cannot play the final. Hopefully we make a letter. You buy a player for a lot of money and he is not able to play for a rule I don’t understand. Hopefully they can change it. You hire a player and he can be disposed the next day. Hopefully we can convince the biggest teams. It is difficult to understand.”
Guardiola’s other January buy, Antoine Semenyo, played in the competition for Bournemouth this season but arrived before the meeting with Newcastle at St James’ Park, in which he played and scored.
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And Guardiola is struggling to understand why Guehi, who joined from Crystal Palace on 19 January, is treated differently.
And he added: “Apparently Marc cannot play the second leg because he didn’t play the first. And Antoine arrived before the first so could play. And now it’s the final. Why should he not play? Why not? We pay his salary, he is our player. It’s like the Champions League, the last two games [of the league phase they] cannot play and we have another player.
Pep Guardiola does not think his appeal for Guehi to be allowed to play in the final will be successful (Getty Images)
“I said to the club, they have to ask, definitely. I don’t understand the reason why he cannot play in the final in March, when I have been here for a long time. The rules to buy a player depends on Fifa, Uefa, the Premier League who say, OK the transfer window is open, when you buy a player you have to play, no? It’s logic. Of course we are going to try to ask [for] him to play. Pure logic.”
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Guardiola said he does not expect his appeal to succeed, adding: “No, but we will try.”
But he believes England international Guehi, who lifted the FA Cup as Palace captain last year, will have plenty more opportunities to win silverware in a City shirt.
“We will play a lot [of finals],” he explained. “He is so young. He came to a team that will play in the next years a lot of finals. No doubt about that.”
