Estonia's athletes made their debut at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday wearing bright blue jackets and waving the blue, black and white flag during the opening ceremony.

The 2026 Winter Olympics, featuring 16 sports with 116 medal events, will take place from Feb. 4 to Feb. 22 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Preliminary events will begin on Feb. 4, the opening ceremony will be Feb.

The 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off Friday and fans of the games will be able to tune in throughout the day, thanks to live streaming of the event, and check out all of the action from Milano Cortina.

The Italian is an alpine ski legend in her own right and had the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron in Cortina during Friday's Opening Ceremony. At the Beijing Olympics four years ago, she won silver in the downhill, a mere 23 days after partially tearing the ACL in her left knee in a crash in Cortina.

Evan Bates and Madison Chock closed today's events with a boost to Team USA's score, earning the team 10 points in their ice dance free dance event. As of now, the Japanese figure skating team ranks second with 39 points, and Italy trails closely behind with 37 points.

Here is an updated look at the Olympic mixed doubles curling standings at the 2026 Winter Games.

The official Opening Ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games isn't until Friday afternoon, but several of the tournament's most popular sports have already begun. There simply isn't enough time to fit everything into the official three-week period,

Americans who top the podium at the Milan Cortina Games will be in line for a $37,500 bonus. Their competitors could collect as much as $800,000.

It was unclear what caused the brief blip as players joked and killed time before the lights came on and action resumed.