How to watch the Winter Olympics : NPR
An advertisement for the 2026 Winter Olympics stands near the Piazza Duomo in the co-host city of Milan, Italy, as the opening ceremony approaches.
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It’s the Winter Olympics, that special season every four years when everyone you know suddenly becomes an expert in sledding strategy and curling technique from the comfort of their couch.
There is a lot to discover this year at the unusually large Olympic Games in Milan Cortina.
Hundreds of athletes from around the world, including 232 Americans, will travel to more than two dozen venues across northern Italy to compete in 16 different sports. There are 116 medal events at stake throughout the two and a half weeks. And this time, unlike the COVID-era 2022 Beijing Winter Games, spectators will be allowed to watch in person.
But you don’t need to board a plane or wear hand warmers to get a good view, thanks to NBC’s robust broadcast rights and NPR’s scrappy team of reporters on the ground. Here’s how to follow the action – and take a peek behind the curtain – from home.
How to watch the opening ceremony
The opening ceremony on February 6 marks the official start of the Games (although several sports, including curling and ice hockey, begin competition two days earlier).
It will take place primarily at Milan’s historic San Siro stadium, with performances from icons like Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli, as well as traditional elements like the parade of nations and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.
But there will also be simultaneous ceremonies and parades of athletes at some of the other venues – scattered hundreds of kilometers apart – and, for the first time in history, a second Olympic cauldron will be lit in the co-host city of Cortina d’Ampezzo.
NBC’s live coverage of the Opening Ceremony (also airing on Peacock) will begin at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, February 6, with a primetime broadcast scheduled for 8 p.m. ET the same day.
How to keep up once the Games start
There are 16 days of competition between the opening and closing ceremonies, with competitions and medal events interspersed, depending on the sport. Here’s the full schedule (events are listed in local time in Italy, which is six hours ahead of Eastern Time).
NBC says it will broadcast the events live throughout the day, with a nightly primetime broadcast at 8 p.m. ET, followed by a late-night version.
US-based viewers can watch on NBC, Peacock and a host of other platforms, including the NBC and NBC Sports apps and websites. Seasoned Olympic viewers will recognize Peacock viewing experiences like “Gold Zone” (which moves between key moments, eliminating the need for channel surfing) and “Multiview,” now available on mobile.
The Closing Ceremony on February 22 will be broadcast live beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET, and again in prime time at 9 p.m. ET.
The event will take place in a historic amphitheater in Verona, which will also host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games on March 6. Some 600 para-athletes will compete in 79 medal events across six sports — including para-alpine skiing, sledge hockey and wheelchair curling — before the closing ceremony in Cortina on March 15.
How to follow NPR’s coverage
Meanwhile, you can check out NPR’s Olympics coverage to better understand the key people, context and moments that make up the Games.
NPR’s five-person Olympic team will bring you news, recaps and color from the field in Italy, online, on air and in your inbox. Plus, expect occasional updates and in-depth analysis from NPR journalists watching from DC and around the world.
You can find all of NPR’s stories from the Winter Olympics (past, present and future) here on our website.
To hear our broadcast coverage, tune into your local NPR station and stream our radio programming at npr.org or on the NPR app.
Additionally, subscribe to our newsletter, Rachel is going to the Games, for a daily dose of what it’s like to be there in person.
We will also have a video podcast, First Winter Gamesto further analyze the biggest Olympic stories and oddities of the day. You can find it on NPR’s YouTube page.
