Ultimate Guide to Watching the Winter Olympics with Kids

Many families will be glued to their TVs this month watching the 2026 Winter Olympics, with the opening ceremony on February 6 and the closing ceremony on February 22 in Milano Cortina in Italy. Learn more about the Olympics with this guide to watching from home.

How to Watch

This year, watch the Olympics with NBC or streaming service Peacock. You can find the schedule and how to watch at nbcolympics.com/schedule. Italy is six hours ahead of Atlanta.

Key Dates:

• Feb. 4, 1:05 p.m.: Curling competition begins.
• Feb. 6, 2 p.m.: Opening ceremony.
• Feb. 7, 5:30 a.m.: First gold medal events.
• Feb. 8, 5:30 a.m.: Women’s Alpine skiing downhill gold medal event.
• Feb. 13, 3 p.m.: Men’s free skate gold medal event.
• Feb. 18, 7:20 a.m.: Women’s Alpine skiing slalom gold medal event.
• Feb. 19, 1 p.m.: Women’s free skate gold medal event.
• Feb. 19, 1:10 p.m.: Women’s hockey gold medal event.
• Feb. 22, 8:10 a.m.: Men’s hockey gold medal event.
• Feb. 22, 2:30 p.m.: Closing ceremony.

Meet the Mascots

Tina and Milo are the mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, respectively. Their names are diminutives of the host cities: Tina for Cortina and Milo for Milano. These two stoats are naturally curious siblings who love sports, outdoor life and having fun. They represent the contemporary, vibrant and dynamic Italian spirit.

About the Winter Olympics

• More than 3,500 athletes from 93 countries will be competing this year.
• Ski mountaineering will make its debut at Milano Cortina 2026. The sport calls for athletes to race up and down a course alternating between being on skis and on foot.
• New events will also be introduced this year: Women’s Doubles in luge, Women’s Large Hill in ski jumping, Mixed Team event in skeleton, Men’s and Women’s Dual Moguls in freestyle skiing and Team Combined in alpine skiing.
• The medals for the games represent a new energy of thoughts capable of expressing the need for transformation with two halves coming together to create a union. The medals were crafted by the Italian State Mint and Polygraphic Institute using recycled metal. Medals will be awarded in 116 Olympic and 79 Paralympic events for a grand total of 1,146 medals.

Team USA

• Team USA currently has 114 gold medals, 121 silver medals and 95 bronze medals for a total of 330 Winter Olympic medals.
• The United States has hosted the Winter Olympics four times, more than any other country: Lake Placid in 1932, Squaw Valley in 1960, Lake Placid again in 1980 and Salt Lake City in 2002. The 2034 Winter Olympics will take place again at Salt Lake City.
• USA’s Debra Thomas became the first Black athlete to medal at the Winter Olympics after she won bronze in figure skating at the 1988 Games.
• USA is the only country to have a won a gold medal at every Olympic Winter Games, which started in 1924.

Local Athlete to Watch

Douglasville native Elana Meyers Taylor heads to her fifth Olympics for the bobsled event. She has won medals at all four of her previous Olympics and is the most decorated Black winter Olympian.

Olympics Fun at Home

Here’s how to ramp up the excitement, make watching the Olympics more fun and sneak in a little learning, too.

Learn History, Geography and More: What a great opportunity for kids to learn a little about Italy and its cities. This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history, as the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo are 250 miles away, and the closing ceremony in Verona will be 100 miles east of Milan. Learn more about the history of the Olympics, or explore the 1996 Summer Games that Atlanta hosted! Find facts online to intrigue the kids, and you can even visit Atlanta History Center for “Atlanta ’96. Shaping an Olympic and Paralympic City.”

Play a Trivia Game: You’ll find plenty of trivia quizzes online – put them up on the TV screen and see who can score the most correct answers. Find examples on kidzworld.com, funtrivia.com and factmonster.com. You can even purchase or make a gold medal to give to the winner.

Make a Craft: Create salt dough medals by combining 1 cup of salt with 1 cup of flour and ¾ cup of water. Combine ingredients into a dough, roll flat and cut out three circles. Imprint with wooden or plastic numbers, poke a hole for the ribbon and bake at 210 degrees for two hours. Once dry, paint them with gold, silver and bronze acrylic paint and thread ribbons through the holes.

Play a Version of ‘I Spy’: Download flags of the countries participating in the Olympics at kidworldcitizen.org and see who can spot them first during the opening ceremonies. Bonus points if you can name the country or the continent. The opening ceremony starts at 2 p.m. on Feb. 6, with an NBC feature repeating at 8 p.m.

Read a Book: “The Winter Olympics” by Nick Hunter is a go-to guide for kids about Winter Olympics facts and stats. “Winter Olympics: A Fun Guide to Your Favorite Snowy Sports” by Tomasz Dabrowski explores the most popular winter sports with fun facts, history lessons and simple explanations. Learn more about what it takes to be an Olympian with “How Do You Become an Olympian?” written by Canadian Olympic runner Madeleine Kelly. Part of the “What Was?” series, check out “What Are the Winter Olympics?” for a guide to all the questions your kid might have.

See a Movie: “Cool Runnings” is a Disney film about the Jamaican bobsled team. “Miracle” tells the true story of Herb Books, the coach to who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to an unlikely victory over the Russian team. In “The Cutting Edge,” a figure skater and a former hockey player try to win Olympic gold as a figure skating pairs team. For older kids, “I, Tonya” is based on the story of competitive ice skater, Tonya Harding, and “Eddie the Eagle” is based on Eddie Edwards, who competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

–Teresa Farkas, Amanda Miller Allen and Emily Webb