When and where is the Winter Olympics 2026 taking place?
In a sore point for Sweden, this year's Winter Olympics is being held between the Italian city of Milan and the ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo, after the Italian bid won over a rival Swedish bid back in 2019. Sweden had planned to host the event in Stockholm, together with the ski resort of Åre.
The games sees athletes from the 92 qualified countries compete for 116 medal events in 16 disciplines.
The disciplines this year include: Alpine skiing (10), Biathlon (11), Bobsleigh (4), Cross-country skiing (12), Curling (3), Figure skating (5), Freestyle skiing (15), Ice hockey (2), Luge (5), Nordic combined (3), Short-track speed skating (9), Skeleton (3), Ski jumping (6), Ski mountaineering (3), Snowboarding (11), and Speed skating (14). (The figure in brackets refers to the number of medals available.)
How many medals is Sweden hoping to get?
This year, Sweden's women athletes are particularly strong, while the men aren't expected to bring in as many medals.
So far, Sweden has won two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal for cross-country skiing (all women), as well as an additional gold medal for curling.
Ski cross athlete Sandra Näslund is tipped to win a medal, and the Öberg sisters, Hanna and Elvira, are leading contenders in biathlon events. Sara Hector is tipped to take home medals in Alpine skiing.
Sweden could also win a medal or two in curling. Most observers tip Canada and the USA as favourites to win the men's ice hockey, but the Swedish team remains a contender.
So where can you watch the event on TV in Sweden?
For the first time since 2012, you can watch the games live on Swedish TV, after the European Broadcasting Union EBU – of which public broadcaster SVT is a member ‒ won the free-to-air rights. To keep costs down SVT then struck a deal to split coverage 50:50 with its private rival TV4.
This means that SVT and TV4 will each show parts of the Winter Olympics live, either on their terrestrial channels or on their online services SVT Play or TV4 Play. While events broadcast on SVT Play are free, you need to subscribe to the TV4 Plus service to watch events on TV4 Play.
Warner Bros. Discovery won the full pay-TV rights, meaning it will broadcast every single Olympic event live on its HBO Max streaming service and also on its Eurosport TV channel.
Will everything be broadcast on the terrestrial TV channels?
No. There are simply too many events, so SVT and TV4 will only broadcast the events of most interest to Swedish viewers on their main channels, with many of the more minor events, including some curling ones, broadcast only online. Both SVT and TV4 will also show highlights of the most exciting events of the day's competitions in their evening broadcasts.
Who is broadcasting what?
HBO Max: all events for all 16 Olympic disciplines
SVT: alpine skiing, ski jumping, curling (men's and mixed), ice hockey (shared with TV4), figure skating, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, moguls, short track, skeleton and speed skating.
TV4: curling (women), bobsleigh, freeskiing, ski jump, ice hockey (shared with SVT), luge, ski cross, ski mountaineering, biathlon and snowboarding.
All three broadcasted the opening ceremony on February 6th.
How can I find out what is on where?
TV4 has a calendar of the events that it is broadcasting here. SVT has a calendar here.
How much does it cost?
SVT Play is free, with no subscription required. Watching events streamed on TV4 Play, however, requires a subscription to TV4 Plus, which costs 69 kronor per month.
The cheapest subscription to HBO Max, where you can watch all events in full, costs 89 kronor per month.
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