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Around 2,900 athletes from more than 90 countries will compete on the ice and snow at Milan-Cortina 2026.

The world’s biggest winter sports stars will descend on northern Italy from Friday 6 February and there’s certain to be thrills, drama and breakout performances.

Age: 41 Nation: United States

Just five days before the women’s downhill event takes place in Cortina, Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn announced that she had ruptured her left anterior cruciate ligament but is still hopeful that she can compete on Sunday.

Vonn was airlifted to hospital in Switzerland after crashing in the final World Cup race of the season but remains determined to compete in her fifth Olympics, despite the serious injury.

The veteran skier is no stranger to a comeback having retired in 2019 because of injury before undergoing partial replacement knee surgery on her right knee and returning to the sport in 2024.

Age: 30 Nation: United States

Mikaela Shiffrin is the greatest alpine skier of all time and, competing at her fourth Olympics, has said she wants to “make peace” with the Games following disappointment in Beijing along with serious injury and mental health struggles.

The five-time overall World Cup winner has 108 World Cup wins, securing victory in the opening five slalom events of the season which, when added to her victory in the final slalom of last season, equalled her own record of six consecutive wins in the discipline.

Age: 24 Nation: United States

American figure skater Maxim Naumov’s participation in the Milan-Cortina Games could be emotional as he makes his Olympic debut after his parents were killed in a plane crash in Washington DC last year.

Naumov’s dream to make Team USA was one of the last things he spoke about with his parents before they were killed.

Age: 28 Nation: France

Ski mountaineering, or ‘skimo’, is making its Olympic debut at Milan-Cortina and, while Great Britain have failed to qualify an athlete in the Games’ new sport, France’s Emily Harrop is the next best thing.

With English parents, Harrop could have competed for Team GB but having relocated to the French Alps as a child she opted to represent France.

Age: 28 Nation: Netherlands

Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam will compete in the 1,000m and 500m in Milan.

A former world sprint champion, Leerdam also won a silver medal in the 1,000m at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Age: 19 Nation: New Zealand

Teenager Finley Melville Ives arrives in Italy as one of the most exciting prospects on the freestyle skiing circuit.

Ives’ parents are both snowboard instructors and his twin brother followed in their footsteps, but Ives opted instead for skis from a young age.

Age: 22 Nation: China

Born and raised in California, freestyle skier Eileen Gu was China’s poster girl for Beijing 2022, where – aged 18 – she won gold in the big air and freeski halfpipe competitions and silver in the slopestyle.

In addition to her Olympic triumphs, she is also a two-time world champion and three-time Winter X Games champion.

For the first time since Sochi 2014, the National Hockey League is permitting its athletes to participate in the Winter Olympics.

NHL stars did not travel to the 2018 or 2022 Games because of financial disputes and pandemic-related complications but will return to the ice this year.

Age: 25 Nation: United States

Eight years after winning gold as a 17-year-old in Pyeongchang, American halfpipe snowboarder Chloe Kim is going for a three-peat in Italy.

She successfully defended her title in Beijing four years ago but her preparations for Milan-Cortina have been disrupted after she dislocated her shoulder at the beginning of the year.

Age: 35 Nation: Germany

Legendary German bobsleigh pilot Francesco Friedrich arrives in Italy hoping to become the first man do the treble double – winning two and four-man gold for the third Games in a row.

He is a 16-time world champion across the two and four-man events while he has well over 100 World Cup podium finishes, claiming a 50th victory in the two-man earlier this year.

Age: 35 Nation: Italy

Competing at her sixth Games, Arianna Fontana is an 11-time Winter Olympic medallist and has won medals at her five previous appearances – including as a 15-year-old in Turin.

Twenty years later, the short track skater is also aiming to compete in long track speed skating.

Age: 25 Nation: Brazil

Norwegian-born skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen could make history in Italy by winning a first Winter Olympics medal for a South American country after he switched allegiance to compete for his mother’s home country of Brazil.

The slalom and giant slalom expert retired in 2023 having competed for Norway but returned in 2025 to represent Brazil and became the first Brazilian to finish on a World Cup podium last year before claiming the country’s first victory this season to add to his five for Norway.

Age: 18 Nation: Independent Neutral Athlete

Russian skater Adeliia Petrosian is one of around 20 Russian or Belarusian athletes competing under a neutral flag in Italy.

The teenager had not competed internationally at senior level until the Olympic qualifiers because of the ban on Russian athletes but is a genuine medal contender having won the qualifying event.

Age: 21 Nation: United States

Ilia Malinin is the only skater to have successfully landed the quadruple Axel, skating’s most difficult jump, in competition, earning him the nickname the ‘Quad God’.

The American, born to Olympic figure skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov, is the hot favourite for the men’s singles title in Italy with previous routines including seven quads and a back flip.

Spanish figure skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate is optimistic he will be allowed to perform to music from the Minions films at the Winter Olympics after receiving copyright clearance from Universal Studios.

Sabate, known for his flamboyant routines, has performed to songs from the Minions animated film series while wearing a yellow T-shirt and blue overalls, similar to the characters’ outfits, throughout the 2025-26 season.

He said on Monday that he would not be able to perform to the music at the Olympics as rights holders Universal Pictures had not given permission.

However, on Tuesday Sabate said Universal Studios had reversed its objection and that he is “so close” to being allowed to perform his routine.

“Huge thank you to everyone who reposted, shared and supported,” Sabate said.

“Because of you, Universal Studios reconsidered and officially granted the rights for this one special occasion.

“There are still a couple of things to be tied up with the other two music of the program, but we are so close to accomplishing it! And it’s all thanks to you.

“I’m so happy to see that the Minions hitting Olympic ice is becoming real again!”

The routine in Sabate’s short program – the first of two routines in singles figure skating – has proved a hit in competitions, including in Sheffield at this year’s European Figure Skating Championships, where he finished 18th but became a fan favourite.

Sabate, a six-time Spanish champion set to make his Olympic debut in Milan, said he followed all required procedures and submitted the music through the International Skating Union’s (ISU) ClicknClear system in August.

If he is unable to perform to the Minions mix, he may use music by the Bee Gees for his short program, as this was the routine he performed to in 2024-25.

The men’s event starts in Milan on Tuesday.

“As soon as we have more details on this specific case, we will share them as appropriate,” read an ISU statement.

Former Premier League goalkeeper Shaka Hislop says it is “alarming” that tests for prostate cancer are not “regular and standardised” in the United Kingdom.

The 56-year-old was diagnosed with the disease in 2024 after he requested a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test during his annual medical examination in the United States.

Routine PSA testing is not offered by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, with the screening usually only provided if you are over 50 or if other symptoms are identified.

According to research from Prostate Cancer UK, one in eight males will be diagnosed with the disease at some point in their life.

In black males, meanwhile, that risk is as high as one in four.

The former Trinidad and Tobago keeper – who now lives in the United States – believes the current testing protocol for the disease is flawed and needs changing, especially with cancer’s rising prominence in certain ethnic communities.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast programme, Hislop said: “I honestly can’t believe that it is still a thing given all we know of prostate cancer and its prominence, particularly in the minority community.

“So, to have that not be a regular and standardised test as offered to people regardless of whether they have any family history or not, I find alarming.

“I have no history of prostate cancer in my family yet here I am having been diagnosed and been treated for it.”

Since his diagnosis, Hislop has tried to approach the prostate cancer with the same “fight” he had during a professional career that spanned six clubs in England, including West Ham and Newcastle.

But it has been difficult for his wife to deal with because of an “emotional history” with the disease.

“My father‑in‑law died of prostate cancer, so I can’t imagine what my wife was going through when she heard my news, knowing her emotional history with prostate cancer, having to deal with that and still be strong for me,” said Hislop.

“For me, it was slightly different in that I understand why they say fight cancer, because that was the only emotion I felt: ‘All right, this is a fight.’ And that’s exactly the way I saw it.

“This was me against cancer – or me and a surgical team against cancer. That was my mindset. I never felt beaten, I never felt demoralised. I never felt sorry. This was just another fight in my life.

“Much the same way I kind of approached a football game, where you focus solely on that.

“It’s the only thing that mattered and that was my entire mindset throughout.

“I know from speaking to people who’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer that the initial emotional gut punch is tough.

Hislop is not the first former professional athlete to urge the NHS to change its testing regime.

In 2024, six-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy told the BBC it would be a “no-brainier” to lower the age that males are eligible to request PSA tests.

The previous year, Hoy, 49, was diagnosed with prostate cancer which had spread to his bones. He was told he had between two and four years to live.

In November 2025, the UK National Screening Committee decided against recommending mass screening on the NHS for prostate cancer, saying the main screening test for prostate cancer is “not very reliable” and as a result, can lead to “over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment”.

Speaking to Naga Munchetty on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday, health secretary Wes Streeting said the government is “still considering and weighing up the evidence.”

“It’s not done and dusted,” he added. “On one hand we know there are massive health inequalities in this space, for black men in particular. On the other hand what we wouldn’t want, in pursuit of expanding treatment, is to end up in another situation where we’ve got a bunch of men walking around impotent or incontinent because we’ve over-treated or unnecessarily treated.”

Hislop is hoping that by ex-athletes documenting their battles against prostate cancer, it will increase the “education” around diagnosis.

“Cancer can affect anyone,” added Hislop. “The earlier you catch it – whatever the cancer is – the better your chance of survival. So knowledge is key here. Knowledge around your own health is absolutely key.

“The other side to that is, if and when you do get that cancer diagnosis, that does not mean it’s the end of life. That is not a life sentence.

“If you catch it early enough, and again this goes back to the education around it, around early testing, you can still live a full and very long life. That’s certainly my expectation now.

“When the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, who again, keeping himself in shape, former athlete, is not caught early enough, the diagnosis can be very dire.

“So there are two sides to this: education around who can get cancer – and the short answer to that is anyone – and then just recognising that you’re part of that group of anyone, and getting tested for it, because the earlier you catch it, the better your chances of living as full a life as ever before.

“So those two things I think are important to know, to understand, to recognise and to speak about.”

It is difficult to hide from the cameras when you are as box office as Louis Rees-Zammit, even when you are among 70,000 spectators.

And sure enough, he was picked out among the Principality Stadium crowd when Wales suffered a 10-try drubbing by England during last year’s Six Nations.

Rees-Zammit was chasing his NFL dream at the time, before returning to rugby union in the summer.

“Obviously it wasn’t a great watch, especially against England and losing in that manner,” he said on Sarra Elgan’s Six Nations 2026 Preview.

It will actually be a first for Rees-Zammit, who at 25 has already played in three Six Nations, a World Cup and toured with the British and Irish Lions.

But he has never run out for Wales at Twickenham.

“We played Quins there for Bristol a couple of months back and that was unbelievable, the crowd was insane,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to it, it’s the first game as well. It’s kind of the unknown with Wales – what have we done to bring a more consistent performance from the autumn to now?

“All of the boys are raring to go. There’s no bigger game than Wales England.”

It is fair to say Welsh fans are not carrying a great deal of hope into this year’s Championship, especially after record defeats in the autumn.

You have to go all the way back to March 2023 to find Wales’ most recent Six Nations success, in a match against Italy.

But with Steve Tandy leading Wales in the Six Nations for the first time, Rees-Zammit says this year feels like a fresh start.

“It’s like a new team coming together. When you get new coaching staff and different ideas, it feels like everyone freshens up and starts from scratch,” he said.

“In parts, we put in some good performances in the autumn, it’s just about doing it consistently for a full 80 minutes.”

Rees-Zammit also recognises with the 2027 World Cup fast approaching, Wales are playing catch-up with the other nations.

“We’ve got to continue to work hard and try and accelerate this process as quick as possible,” he said.

Rees-Zammit’s pace and power have seen him flourish at full-back at Bristol, while Wales Tandy also sees “high potential” for him there.

“I love it. It allows me to get more touches on the ball in open field, it suits my game,” Rees-Zammit said.

“I much prefer it. I’ve played 15 in the past for Wales, but I think now I’m kind of seen as a 15 that can play on the wing.

“It just brings something different and the way Bristol play is absolutely perfect for me.

As a poster boy of world rugby, Rees-Zammit’s return to the Six Nations is not only a boost for Wales, but for fans and media alike.

“I try to not focus on that,” Rees-Zammit said.

“Everything that I’ve had off the field has come from my skills in rugby, and obviously going to America brought a new audience, but it’s all about performance.

“You’ve got Henry Pollock going through the same thing, he’s burst on to the scene and is playing unbelievably.”

And while England’s Pollock ruffles a few feathers, Rees-Zammit believes it is for the good of the game.

“You’ve got to try and bring your personality out when it comes to rugby, because a lot of it gets shut down,” he added.

“Henry is doing a great job of bringing his personality to the game and we need more people like that, it’ll just grow the sport.

“He obviously gets stick for it, and I got stick for it when I was younger, but you just go through it.”