The 2026 Winter Olympics have kicked off in Italy
On Friday, 6 February, the Olympic flame for the XXV Winter Olympic Games was lit in Italy. The opening ceremony will take place at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, and the competitions themselves will be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo and will last until 22 February.
More than 4,000 athletes from 96 countries will take part in the Games. Athletes will compete in 16 sports, with 116 sets of medals up for grabs.
Ukraine will be represented at the Olympics by 46 athletes who will compete in 11 sports. These include biathlon, freestyle, luge, skeleton, short track, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, alpine skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and figure skating.
Since independence, Ukraine has won nine medals at the Winter Olympics. The team has won three gold, two silver and four bronze medals. Biathlon has brought Ukraine the most medals, including gold in the women's relay at the 2014 Games in Sochi. The first Olympic champion of independent Ukraine was figure skater Oksana Baiul at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.
At the previous Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, the Ukrainian team won one silver medal, which was won by freestyle skier Oleksandr Abramenko.
Before the start of the competition, the head of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, Vadym Guttsait, emphasised that the Olympic Games are always unpredictable, and Ukrainian athletes have repeatedly proven their ability to compete for medals even when the odds are stacked against them. He named skeleton, ski acrobatics and luge as the most promising disciplines.
