Archive January 31, 2026

The 25th Winter Olympics is almost here – it’s back in Europe and will feature a record 116 medal events, three of which will be in the new sport of ski mountaineering.

Great Britain have never won more than five medals – or more than one gold – at a single Winter Olympics, but that could change in 2026.

Medal ‘targets’ have become medal ‘ranges’ at recent Olympics, and for Milan-Cortina the funding body UK Sport is hoping GB athletes will win between four and eight medals, while Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead says there is an “opportunity to get the most we ever have”.

British athletes won nine medals at the most recent World Championships in Winter Olympic sports – across bobsleigh, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton and snowboard.

And that does not include the likes of snowboarder Mia Brookes and freestyle skier Kirsty Muir who have won World Cup events this season and are considered genuine medal hopes.

The Winter Olympics have come a long way since their 1924 debut, which featured 11 female athletes – and roughly 25 times more men.

According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), about 1,300 female athletes will be at Milan-Cortina. Of the 116 medal events, 50 will be in women’s competition (the most ever) and 12 will be mixed. The upshot is that women will compete in a Winter Games-record 53.4% of all medal events.

Twelve of the 16 disciplines will be fully gender-balanced in athlete numbers – another Games record. Among the new women’s events are luge doubles and the ski jumping individual large hill, while there is also a mixed skeleton relay.

There is another sign of the progress made with equality: these Games are the first to be overseen by new IOC president Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to be elected to the organisation’s most powerful position.

Ice hockey is one of the biggest draws of the Winter Olympics, and the return of NHL stars after an absence of 12 years has only heightened the anticipation.

NHL-contracted players were denied a chance to compete at the 2018 Games while Covid put paid to their 2022 participation – and even 2026 has been touch and go after major issues with the readiness of the main rink and the condition of the ice.

The return of NHL players has also reignited the USA’s hopes of a first Olympic men’s ice hockey title since the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ gold – further boosted by the fact that Russia are banned from competing.

Cortina d’Ampezzo will become the fourth location to host the Winter Olympics twice, following St Moritz (1928 & 1948), Innsbruck (1964 & 1976) and Lake Placid (1932 & 1980).

The growth of the Winter Olympics from 1956 to 2026 – five times as many events and almost four times as many athletes – means it would be impossible today for a ski resort like Cortina to stage the Olympics single-handedly. The 2026 Games will be the most geographically widespread, with events in multiple regions and cities, including Milan, which is Italy’s second biggest city.

The IOC also prizes sustainability, and spreading events around – something president Kirsty Coventry says will be “the new normal” – meaning less new infrastructure is required.

Not since 2018 has there been a new name at the top of the list of most Winter Olympic golds, but 2026 could change that.

German lugers Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt are aiming to win their seventh and eighth golds in Milan-Cortina, which would move them level with the Norwegian trio of biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen and cross country skiers Bjorn Daehlie and Marit Bjorgen.

It would arguably be a greater achievement as biathlon and cross country skiing offer more medal opportunities than luge. Daehlie, Bjorgen and Bjorndalen won gold in 53%, 33% and 30% respectively of the Olympic events they competed in. The ‘Two Tobis’ have won all six of theirs (100%).

Hosting an Olympics usually results in a boost in medals – but it’s not always the case, as Italy discovered the last time they hosted the Winter Olympics in 2006.

They had won 13 medals in 2002 in Salt Lake City but only managed 11 in Turin – although they did win five golds as opposed to four in the USA four years previously.

The Italian Olympic Committee has set a minimum target of 19 medals, which is one short of their biggest haul of 20. That was achieved in 1994 – including a record seven golds – when their team included the likes of skiing greats Alberto Tomba, Deborah Compagnoni and Stefania Belmondo.

Italy’s 2026 hopes have already suffered a few setbacks, with flagbearer Federica Brignone and freestyle skier Flora Tabanelli both fighting fitness battles while another alpine hope, Marta Bassino, has already been ruled out.

But there are others with golden credentials, including speed skater Davide Ghiotto, snowboarder Maurizio Bormolini and curling pair Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini.

Great Britain’s Neal Skupski and American partner Christian Harrison claimed the Australian Open men’s doubles title in their first Grand Slam together.

Skupski, 36, and Harrison, 31, defeated Australian wildcards Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.

Skupski and Harrison competed together for the first time in Adelaide just before the Australian Open, getting to the semi-finals.

Liverpudlian Skupski played with fellow Briton Joe Salisbury throughout 2025, reaching finals at the French Open and US Open, before Salisbury took a break from tennis because of anxiety.

It is a second Grand Slam men’s doubles crown for Skupski, who won the Wimbledon title alongside Dutchman Wesley Koolhof in 2023.

It is also the third time in the past five Grand Slams that at least one British player has triumphed in the men’s doubles.

The American television drama Heated Rivalry – about two male professional ice hockey players in a secret relationship – has become the first viral show of 2026.

For most viewers, it is entertainment to be talked about at work or online. For Jesse Kortuem, it hit deeper.

Born, raised and still living in Minneapolis, he grew up with skates on his feet and loved ice hockey – but stepped away from the sport at 17 as he felt he would not be accepted because of his sexuality.

More than two decades later, watching Heated Rivalry inspired Kortuem to come out as gay, believing it shows attitudes within the sport have shifted for the better.

His Instagram post has since gone viral, leading to a “very surreal” start to the year.

“I’m just so grateful for where my life has ended up,” he tells BBC Sport. “To finally have that relief… to bring 110% of myself into the locker room. Something was speaking to me through the show – I had to let something out.

“Then that release was shared with the entire world. For the first couple of days, it was shocking, but now it is humbling – people have reached out to say it inspired them to have the conversation with their parents. I’m honestly speechless.”

Kortuem played ice hockey in local leagues in Minneapolis during his teenage years, and occasionally dipped back into the amateur game as an adult.

It was not until he joined Cutting Edges, an LGBT-inclusive team who play across North America, in 2017 that he re-engaged with the sport – and it was only this year that he felt comfortable to be open about his sexuality with the wider hockey community.

Now 40, Kortuem says he had to “edit” himself in hockey – and life – to fit in.

But seeing the show, in which two athletes enter a loving relationship, stirred repressed feelings.

“I had to hide, and looking back now it was tough,” he says. “It was still a place of comfort, but a place I had to edit myself.

Like many LGBTQ+ amateur athletes, Kortuem has a nagging feeling that having to repress a part of his personality stopped him being his best – and potentially cost him sporting opportunities.

But he says former team-mates getting in touch in recent weeks has helped.

“I didn’t know what would happen if I disrupted the brotherhood you have in the locker room,” he says. “Would I be a target?

“But I’m now at peace. I don’t know where hockey could have brought me, if I would have had a career, but to have that pride on the ice, it feels like home.”

Despite Heated Rivalry’s overtly queer themes, the show has been embraced by the wider hockey community.

It is, of course, escapism rather than a realistic portrayal of what life would be like for a homosexual player in the American top-tier National Hockey League (NHL).

But Kortuem thinks a popular show with a positive attitude towards gay athletes can only do good.

“It really hit me and a lot of gay athletes; our whole lives we were taught it was not OK to be gay,” he says.

“To see the positive reception – not only from gay people, but straight hockey fans – and watching them cheer on these queer hockey players really resonated, even if these are fictional characters who get this Cinderella story.

“Even ex-NHL players have embraced it – they say the hockey is terrible, but they like the story. It can resonate with people, and it means finally, for someone at my age, that it is a positive gay story.

There are currently no active NHL players who are out as gay, though the sport does have more elite LGBTQ+ representation than many others.

In 2021, Luke Prokop became the first player contracted to an NHL club to come out as gay. The following year, Zach Sullivan, who plays for Manchester Storm in the Elite League – the top tier of UK ice hockey – revealed he was bisexual.

Women’s ice hockey, meanwhile, has its own version of Heated Rivalry. Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette were respective captains of the US and Canada Olympic teams. Since retiring, they have married and started a family.

The NHL, meanwhile, has been keen to capitalise on the popularity of the show, with commissioner Gary Bettman saying he binge-watched all six episodes in one night.

But Kortuem says “a lot of gay people” are “very hesitant” about what the NHL says.

During the 2022-23 season, the league eliminated Pride jerseys after some players refused to wear them. Bettman said shirts had become “more of a distraction” but Kortuem believes the message it sent to gay people was they were “not welcome”.

In an interview with The Athletic, Bettman said: “You know what our goals, our values and our intentions are across the league, whether it’s at the league level or at the club level. But we also have to respect individual choice. And part of being diverse and welcoming is understanding those differences.”

Later that season, the NHL banned players from using using stick tape to express support for social causes, before reversing that decision.

“Actions speak louder than words,” says Kortuem. “I would like to see the NHL say they were wrong.”

Heated Rivalry itself has come in for criticism, for creating an impression that there is a secret network of gay athletes in the NHL – and some have found the explicit scenes too much to handle.

“The sex part in the first two episodes might have been a bit much,” says Kortuem. “I had to tell my 77-year-old parents to stick with the whole show.

When Dominic Calvert-Lewin left Everton last summer after nine years with the club, he could be forgiven for being a little fearful of what his future held.

The striker struggled with injuries in the latter stages of his Toffees career and managed just three goals in his final season, meaning whoever did sign him was likely taking a bit of a risk.

But that gamble has paid off for Leeds, with Calvert-Lewin having revived his career with an excellent scoring run under Daniel Farke, scoring seven goals in his past six games.

That form has also led to talk of his return to the England squad and possibly even a place at the 2026 World Cup – something that seemed very unlikely just six months ago.

After almost a decade at Everton, the change of scenery has clearly done Calvert-Lewin the world of good.

With nine Premier League goals he has outscored big-money arrivals like Hugo Ekitike, Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko.

“I just felt like I needed a fresh start,” he said.

“I think that I’d gone from a 19-year-old boy to a 28-year-old man and deep down a fresh start is what I felt like I needed.

“So obviously when communication started with Leeds, I felt that this was the place for me to come in and thrive and get back to my best level.”

Key for Calvert-Lewin has been the faith Farke has shown in him.

The German coach said recently that he had always been a big fan of Calvert-Lewin and would always sign him if the opportunity presented itself.

“I had a phone call with him one or two days before I signed and he spoke for maybe 30 minutes,” Calvert-Lewin said of his first conversation with Farke.

“I was just listening and his personality came through. I could tell that he was a caring person and he cared about his players, and he was just emphasising how he wanted to get me back to my best level.

“That relationship’s just grown and grown and grown.

“You know he has a human side, which I think that then gets the players to be more attentive to the messaging and ultimately makes us play better.”

Calvert-Lewin added: “The thing about players needing an arm around them – some players need shouting out to get the best out of them, I’m a player that needs a bit of both.

Calvert-Lewin’s scoring run this season means he could match – or even surpass – his best-ever Premier League tally of 16 goals, which he achieved in the 2020-21 season.

That was the second campaign in a row where he achieved double figures at Everton, but injuries and a drop in form in front of goal meant he never came close to hitting those sorts of numbers again at the Toffees.

But Calvert-Lewin has no regrets over how things went for his final few seasons at Everton.

“It’s made me who I am today,” he added. “It is part of my story.

“I think that, nowadays, you’ve got to score 20 goals every season for 15 or 20 seasons, and maybe a handful of players are capable of doing that.

“I’m playing in the toughest but best league in the world, so conditions sometimes are important, and for me I had the momentum.

“But the momentum was stopped with injuries and it was hard to build that momentum again.

“I guess I go back to having a strong mindset, a strong will, to just keep pushing and keep going.

Last summer marked the first time Calvert-Lewin had experienced being without a club following his departure from Everton.

With a potentially interested team not having to negotiate any fees for an out-of-contract player, they can afford to take their time before offering a free transfer player a contract.

“Because I was free, it’s almost like they think they can wait, so you end up waiting a little bit longer than what you would like,” Calvert-Lewin added.

“Teams take their time with you because they know you’re kind of there.

“Even though you have multiple people that you’re speaking to, it’s almost like getting that over the line is the hardest part.

“Then you would see someone move for £40-50m and you are left scratching your head a little bit and thinking: ‘Well I don’t cost anything.’

“One thing you can’t do is let your ego take a hit, because this is life.

The right opportunity did arise and Calvert-Lewin’s form for Leeds has seen him return to discussion about the England squad.

He is a top-scoring English striker in the Premier League and, despite not playing for the Three Lions since 2021, he has never stopped believing he could one day be recalled to the international team.

Asked if he ever believed he would be in the World Cup conversation, he said: “Of course. Not in like an arrogant way but sometimes momentum, circumstances and belief in yourself – that if I can do it once I can do it again.

“All it would take was the right circumstances, and timing is also important, and I believed that I could get back into that conversation.

“I still believed it when I was pushing my daughter on the swing in the summer [while out of contract] and I think if I would have stopped believing it, maybe I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you now.”

England will play Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March in their final two games before head coach Thomas Tuchel chooses his squad for the 2026 World Cup.

Calvert-Lewin knows there’s still plenty of football to be played before then and is determined to keep up his good form.

“I’m not there yet,” he said.

“There’s still six or seven games between now and March. A lot can happen.