The Most Striking Photos From the 2026 Winter Olympics

From thrilling performances to hard-earned medal wins, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics has already delivered moments that will go down in sporting history. Unfolding against a backdrop of global uncertainty, the Games are bringing together more than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries. And there have been plenty of wins for Team USA. Skier Breezy Johnson flashed the first U.S. gold medal before reporters at the base of the mountain at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while Alysa Liu returned from a two-year retirement to help the U.S. team secure gold in the figure skating competition. Speedskater Jordan Stolz set a new Olympic record in his first Milano Cortina race, earning gold after he crossed the finish line of the 1000m event in 1 min., 6.28 sec. Figure skater Maxim Naumov received loud cheers as he made his poignant Olympic debut a year after his parents and former coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, died in a plane crash over the Potomac River. And figure skater Ilia Malinin continued redefining the sport, performing a jaw-dropping backflip. There have also been less celebratory moments. Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Games over wearing a helmet that depicted the war dead. And in a scene that concerned onlookers, American skier Lindsey Vonn was airlifted to hospital after crashing during a race. Below is a selection of the most striking images from the 2026 Winter Games so far.