2026 Winter Olympics Event Schedule and Early Favorites to Win Most Medals

The 2026 Winter Olympics begin on February 6 in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

Team USA comes to Italy with a large collection of gold-medal hopefuls, including Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn in alpine skiing and both the men's and women's hockey teams.

Winning the overall medal count will be tough for the Americans, though, since that title belonged to Norway at each of the last two Winter Olympics.

Norway typically dominates in the alpine events, and while Team USA will create plenty of memorable moments in February, the Americans may not have the volume in medals to top the medal count.

The full event schedule for the Milan Games can be found here on the Olympics website.

Norway

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Norway captured 30 gold medals across the last two Winter Olympics.

Four years ago, Norway ran away at the top of the medal count with a 10-medal advantage over Germany in second place.

In addition to the 16 golds won in Beijing, Norway added eight silver and 13 bronze medals.

Norway's biggest strengths are cross-country skiing and biathlon. It won 11 golds in various disciplines across those two sports in 2022.

Norway's dominance in those sports won't go away anytime soon, so we should expect around 10-12 golds from cross-country skiing and biathlon again.

Both of those sports have five or six different disciplines where medals can be won. That's where Norway can do its damage compared to the United States that might excel in alpine skiing, figure skating or snowboarding with one or two specific events for its top individuals.

United States

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Team USA finished third in the medal count in Beijing four years ago.

The Americans picked up 25 medals in 2022, a two-medal increase from their total at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Long-time medal contenders Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn will contend in the alpine skiing events.

Amber Glenn is Team USA's best hopeful to end a medal drought in women's figure skating that dates back to 2006, when the last Winter Olympics were held in Italy.

The Americans have the favorite in the men's figure skating competition in Ilia Malinin and a medal favorite in ice dance in the pair of Madison Chock and Evan Bates.

Both hockey teams are expected to medal and a handful of medals should be earned in the snowboarding events.

Team USA needs a handful of surprise medal winners to challenge Norway just because of the volume of top-three finishes Norway is expected to pick up in the sports the Americans are traditionally not medal winners in.

Germany

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Germany was the runner-up to Norway in the medal count in 2018 and 2022.

The Germans typically pick up a bulk of their medals in the sliding sports.

They won three of the four bobsled golds, all four luge golds and both gold medals in skeleton in 2022.

Another sweep, or near-sweep, of the sliding events will put Germany right in the mix for the top position in the medal table.

Germany should contend in ski jumping, nordic combined, cross-country skiing and biathlon as well.

Just like Norway, Germany has one set of events in which it excels at, and unless a few upsets happen on the sliding track, the Germans will be in mix for the top spot on the medal table.