Olympic speed skating is measured in seconds. Travel time between venues? Hours

The modern Winter Olympics are a relative newcomer to the pantheon. The original Games, held in Olympia in honour of Zeus, began in 776 BC and were abolished some 1,200 years later by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

The modern summer games kicked off in Athens in 1896, but the Winter Olympics didn’t begin until 1924. The first of those was in Chamonix, France , with all 16 events across five sports (bobsleigh, curling, hockey, skating and Nordic skiing) taking place within the town. The 2026 Olympics, however, look a little different. These Games are the most widespread in history.

The venues span an area covering some 22,000 square kilometres . The two host cities, Milan and Cortina, are about 400 km apart by road.

That comes from Olympic Agenda 2020 , a report that focused on reusing or repurposing existing venues rather than building new ones, with the aim of making the Games more sustainable over the long term for host cities. Or in this case, multiple host cities .

Not even close. Milan will host the opening ceremonies in the iconic (and slated to be demolished and replaced) 80,000-seat San Siro stadium. The city will also play host to hockey games and several skating events — speed skating, short track and figure skating.

Cortina, meanwhile, will host women’s alpine skiing, curling (in the Olympic Ice Stadium, which hosted the opening ceremony of the 1956 games) as well as bobsled, luge and skeleton events.

Then there’s Bormio, about 200 km northeast of Milan, and home to men’s alpine skiing. North of there is Livigno, which will host snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

Predazzo, some 80 km southwest of Cortina, will have ski jumping events. Tesero, about 10 km further away, will host cross-country skiing. A little farther out is Anterselva, where the biathlon will take place.

Finally there is Verona, where the closing ceremonies will take place in the Verona Arena, a Roman-era amphitheatre that will seat 15,000 for the event.

Long, and weather dependant to boot. Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, says spectators should be realistic about the time and distance between venues, adding: ”I think this will be the classic ‘pack your patience,’ because there will be some travel time.”

A quick Internet search reveals a road travel time of four and three quarter hours between Milan and Cortina. Milan to Bormio is a shade under three hours, and Milan to Predazzo is three and three quarters. Anterselva, on the Austrian border, is more than four hours away, while Verona is a relatively quick two hours down the road.

That would have added some serious commuting woes, given that the venues are at least 10 hours apart by air, and there’s no major airport in Lake Placid.

But the proposed “Plan B” site for bobsled, luge and skeleton events was called off when the sliding track in Cortina underwent a US$128-million rebuild to bring it up to Olympic standards. Last May that the organizers decided everything could stay in Italy.

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