The 10 Best Events At The Winter Olympics And Why To Get Hyped For 2026

The 2026 Winter Olympics are just around the corner. We are getting excited every day for the 2026 Milan-Cortina games and all of the gold medals ahead for Team USA but some Winter Olympics events get us more hyped than others.

Here, we run through the best Winter Olympics events and why are excited for each discipline heading into the 2026 Milan-Cortina games.

The 10 Best 2026 Winter Olympics Events At The Milan-Cortina Games

It’s been said by many that the Summer Olympics are akin to ‘field day’ in school. The Summer Olympic Games are full of familiar events from school growing up where it’s easy to imagine a gym teacher saying ‘lace up and go play (XYZ)’ like field hockey, running laps, etc.

On the flip side are the Winter Olympics that are completely unhinged at times and it’s as if energy drinks are being pumped straight into the veins of athletes under the directive ‘don’t die’ as they rocket down mountains at speeds human beings were not meant to travel. Get the drift? Anyway, let’s take a look.

1. Hockey

Team USA Men’s Hockey are currently Silver Medal favorites (+200) to Canada who are +140 to win it all. After the two North American powerhouses the odds fall off steeply to Sweden (+500) and Finland (+800).

The fact of the matter is the United States is home to the best NHL teams on earth. Canada hasn’t won a Stanley Cup since before the 1994 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, not that those two things are related. Team USA will roll out a STACKED team for the Olympics and the patriotic fervor will run deep.

2. Downhill Skiing / Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiers can reach up to 95 MPH in the fastest sections as they rocket down the mountain. It is the sport embodiment of throwing caution to the wind, relying on training, and hoping for the best.

A loose spot in the snow caused by a previous racer, or a wet spot from the sun’s glow, these tiny impacts that cannot be planned for or controlled can wreak havoc on the course and athletes at any given minute.

There are some incredible story lines this year that will have us glued to our TVs. Lindsey Vonn is seeking to become the oldest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history. She is already the oldest Olympic medalist in Alpine Skiing after winning bronze in the downhill on February 21, 2018 at the age of 33 years and 126 days.

And Mikaela Shiffrin, the literal G.O.A.T of Alpine Skiing, will seek to clean up with a trio (a possible quartet) of gold medals for Team USA. If she wins two gold medals, Mikaela Shiffrin will will be tied for the most gold medals all-time of any Alpine Skier from any country.

3. Snowboarding

Snowboarding was invented in the United States and perfected here as well. The origins of the sport can be traced back to an engineer in Muskegon, Michigan, Sherm Poppen, who invented the world’s first snowboard in 1965 as a toy for his daughters.

Flash forward decades and Shaun White aka ‘The Flying Tomato’ brought the sport of Snowboarding to unimaginable heights and ushered in a new generation of freak athletes like Chloe Kim who has won back-to-back gold medals in Women’s Halfpipe and is the favorite to win a third in Italy.

4. Curling

While Curling is more popular in Canada than it is in the USA, we love it here. It just isn’t accessible to all Americans. But when Curling comes around at the Winter Olympics, every American male watches on with awe.

Curling is so attractive is even led former NFL great Jared Allen to Team USA curling back in 2018, living out every guy’s dream.

5. Biathlon

It remains a mystery how no Team USA athlete has ever won an Olympics medal in the Biathlon. This is going to change in 2026. I’m calling it now.

Team USA’s 23-year-old Campbell Wright recently claimed two silver medals at the 2025 World Championships, in the 10km Sprint and the 12.5km pursuit. He will be in hot pursuit of gold and honestly, the fact that Team USA can’t win medals in a sport that involves shooting guns is inexplicable. This country has between 400-500 million privately owned firearms. We are running circles around the rest of the world in shooting. Let’s get a medal already?!

6. Ski Jumping

Whoever came up with the ‘long jump’ in Ski Jumping must’ve sounded like a true crazy person. ‘What if we built a ramp that is half the length of a mountain so the skier could reach potentially deadly speeds and then had them jump as far as they could and spend so much time in the air the wind could knock them off kilter at any point?’ That’s the gist.

I love this sport. The current record for men is 820 feet. That record was set back in February 2015. There’s no reason to think we won’t see that record fall this year.

7. Speed Skating

I’ll often argue until cows come home that Playoffs Hockey is the highest-adrenaline experience in sports but that’s likely because I’ve never been up close for short track speed skating. It is all out mayhem from start to finish.

Do they worry about their hearts exploding from blood pumping too fast? We’ll never know. Everyone is so dialed in that when someone wipes out it takes out the entire pack. Bodies flying all over the ice and into the boards. All while the slowest skater breezes by them undeservedly. It’s absolute chaos and a truly great TV product for the Olympics.

8. Bobsled / Skeleton

An entire generation of millennials were raised Cool Runnings and taught how the Jamaican bobsled team came to be. Then we started watching the Bobsled, Luge, and Skeleton events on TV and realized that someone has to have a few screws loose in order to strap up.

Bobsleds reach speeds up to 95 MPH on the tight tracks. Skeleton racers can reach up to 80 MPH with nothing to protect them at all in case of a crash. Any minor lapse in focus can cause disaster.

9. Ice Skating Doubles

Do I look forward to the Ice Skating events every year at the Winter Olympics? I guess, when Team USA is good. Do I have any idea why I look forward to these events? No.

I just know that it’s always been a prime time sport in America, that we are always in contention, and somehow the Team USA doubles skaters inevitably end up as TV personalities in the years to come. It’s like a black hole that sucks you in and you have no idea what’s happening but soon you are absorbed by the energy and drama of it all.

10. Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle Skiing is incredible across all the events: aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air. I’m partial to half-pipe, slopestyle, and big air but I was raised on the X Games on ESPN and that’s where my heart lies.

Hopefully, Team USA will have an answer for Eileen Gu who was born in San Francisco but competes for Team China and is the only Winter Olympics athlete to have won 3 medals in Freestyle Skiing.