In January, American athlete Jessie Diggins, the world's top-ranked female cross-country skier, sprinted up a steep slope in Italy's Val di Fiemme, poles pumping, for her third Tour de Ski victory.
Now, Diggins is back at the nearby Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium in Val di Fiemme, a valley in the Italian Dolomites, for the Olympics — on a course where she's raced many times.
While the 2026 Winter Olympics take place thousands of miles from the U.S., centered around the business capital Milan and the ski resort town Cortina, the competition sites in northern Italy are familiar ground for many on Team USA.
"Our athletes compete there often. Many of them train there," says Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. "It's a place where we know we can shine."
To help even the playing field, cross country officials have reconfigured the course. "Most of it isn't the same; it's quite literally running backwards for part of it," Diggins says. "You have people like me who've been racing there for a very long time, but at the same time everyone's kind of relearning it all over again," she says.
At Val di Fiemme, athletes will also be ski jumping off steep, specialized ramps — and both cross-country skiing and ski jumping in the Nordic combined.
Two hours to the north, driving over winding mountain roads, there's the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena. The valley is considered a "biathlon sanctuary," according to Biathlon World, where top athletes have been skiing and shooting rifles for more than 50 years.
U.S. biathletes have a particular advantage. "Our head coach for the last eight years is from the Antholz Valley, born and raised," says Deedra Irwin, the top U.S. female biathlete. "Most of our wax staff have been ski racing there since they were kids."
The U.S. has never medaled in biathlon. This could be their chance, Irwin says. "We kind of are the locals," she says. "We got all the local intel, we got a nice setup in our house there."
Some 40 miles to the south, the ski resort town Cortina d'Ampezzo will host curling and sliding sports like bobsled and skeleton. Women's Alpine skiers will compete on one of the world's most iconic runs: the Olympia delle Tofane, which debuted at the 1956 Winter Games.
It looms large in Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn's personal history. "Every [skier] has their mountain where they feel most at home," Vonn says. "For me, it's always been Cortina and Lake Louise. Those are my two favorite spots." Vonn has won many major milestone races in both Cortina and Lake Louise in Canada.
Vonn, who's 41, is coming out of retirement for her fifth Olympic Games. "I have a good connection with the mountain. I know what it needs. I know what it takes to win there."
A major crash caused Vonn to rupture a knee ligament a week before the start of the Games, but she announced this week she will still compete.
"I love the town; I love the atmosphere. Everyone there has always welcomed me and treated me like a local," Vonn says. A restaurant in Cortina named a margherita pizza after her.
These mountains lured her back for one more Olympic run. "It's such a beautiful place. It's hard not to stand on top of that mountain and not really realize why you love the sport," Vonn says. "I'm excited to go back there and see the sunrise one more time."
Vonn crashed badly at a World Cup race a week before the start of the Olympics. She announced that she will still compete in the Games, skiing with a brace over the torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on her left knee. "As long as there's still a chance, I will try," Vonn says.
The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics kick off with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6 at the hundred-year-old San Siro Stadium in Milan and conclude Feb. 22 in Verona at another historic venue: an old Roman amphitheater built in A.D. 30 that gladiators once fought in.
Copyright 2026 NPR
