Why Do the Winter Olympics Start Days Before Opening Ceremony?

The Milan Cortina Games opening ceremony is Feb. 6, but the games start two days earlier. | Photo by Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Milan Cortina Games begin on Feb. 6 but fans who can't wait for Olympic action will be able to tune in and watch up to two days early as multiple sports will get started before the cauldron is lit. If you're wondering why some events in the 2026 Winter Olympics are starting ahead of the Opening Ceremony, you're not alone. It turns out that the two weeks between the opening and closing ceremonies just isn't enough time to finish every event.

By the time you wake up on Thursday morning in America you'll be able to watch actual Olympic action streaming on Peacock and then on USA long before the torch enters Milan’s San Siro Stadium on Friday.

So yes, the Olympics are so jam-packed they can't even fit all of the Olympics inside the usual time constraints of the Olympics.

Why do the Olympics start before the Opening Ceremony?

There is not enough time in the official Olympic schedule, which runs from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22 to complete all the events ahead of the Closing Ceremony.

Some sports take the entire 16 days and then some to play entire tournaments. Some sports require extra time for practice runs. If they didn't start early they wouldn't be able to wrap things up before all the fans went home. So they start some of the games ahead of the Opening Ceremony.

What sports will start before the Opening Ceremony?

By the time the athletes walk in for the kickoff, curling, ice hockey, luge, ski jumping, snowboarding and figure skating will already be underway.

Alpine skiing and luge will both start training on Feb. 4 to make sure that everyone has time to adjust to the track and conditions. Curling will also begin that day with mixed doubles round robin games being played to start determining which teams will qualify for the knockout rounds. It will take nearly a week to complete the mixed doubles tournament and then the men's and women's events will run for the final 12 days of the games with the women's gold medal game taking place the morning of the closing ceremonies.

Ski jumping will begin official training runs on Feb. 5, while snowboarding and the ice hockey tournament will also start the day before. All those events will also run Friday before the torch is lit and figure skating will have also begun.

It makes you wonder why they just don't add a few extra days onto the schedule. Are there really that many international viewers to be gained by holding the Opening Ceremony on a Tuesday or Wednesday instead of a Friday? The way that the Games have expanded by adding new sports and television partners, who would argue that the Olympics shouldn't just be a full three weeks? Who couldn't use more curling in their life?

Olympics Opening Week Schedule

Here's a look at the first few days of the Olympic events that will take place before the Opening Ceremony. The chart shows what time each event will begin each day using Eastern Standard Time. Italy is located in the Central European Time, which is six hours ahead of New York.

Event	Wednesday, Feb. 4	Thursday, Feb. 5	Friday, Feb. 6
Alpine Skiing	5:30 a.m. EST	5:30 a.m. EST	5:30 a.m. EST
Curling	1:05 p.m. EST	4:05 a.m. EST	4:05 a.m. EST
Luge	1:30 p.m. EST	8:30 a.m EST	4:00 a.m. EST
Ski Jumping	N/A	12:00 p.m. EST	3:00 a.m. EST
Ice Hockey	N/A	6:10 a.m. EST	6:10 a.m. EST
Figure Skating	N/A	N/A	3:55 a.m. EST

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