How To Watch VA Athletes As Winter Olympic Games Begin

Four athletes with ties to Virginia will compete in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Games, which officially open Friday with a ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium. The games run through Feb. 22.

The opening ceremony is typically the most-viewed event of the game on official broadcasts, and is watched by millions of people worldwide. U.S. pop singer Mariah Carey and crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli are among the performers. The opening ceremony begins at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern).

The ceremony will be re-aired in a primetime broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

Olympic athletes from Virginia are among 2,900 from 93 countries competing for 116 gold medals across 16 sports.

Here's a look at who's competing:

• Brandon Kim: Speedskating, Short Track Speedskating, of Fairfax,
• Ilia Malinin: Figure Skating, of Vienna
• Evan Nichols: Sled Hockey, Paralympian, Haymarket
• Mystique Ro: Skeleton, Nokesville

After winning at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, Malinin, nicknamed the "Quad God," has not lost a major competition in men's singles in over two years. He is the only skater in the world to have successfully landed a quadruple axel in an international competition. A member of the Washington Figure Skating Club, Malinin trains at the ice rink in Reston.

Nichols will be on the hunt for his second Paralympic medal as a member of the Paralympic Sled Hockey. During the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, China, he tallied three assists against South Korea in the preliminary round of competition. Team USA would eventually win the gold medal in the event.

On her way to joining Team USA, Ro won two medals at the 2025 World Championships — a silver in the women's skeleton and a gold in the mixed team skeleton competition. The mixed team skeleton competition will make its Olympic debut during the Milano Cortina 2026 Games.

Brandon Kim, who grew up in Fairfax, will represent Team USA in Milano Cortina 2026 Games in the Short Track Speedskating competition.

After representing Team USA in two world championships, Kim claimed national titles in all three of the events he competed in during the 2026 U.S. Championships. In the process, he broke a nearly 13-year record set by three-time Olympian J.R. Celski, racing the men's 500-meter in 39.83 seconds.

When off the ice, Kim is a student at Stanford University, and plans to attend medical school and specialize in either orthopedics or neurosurgery.

Preliminary heats began on Wednesday. Check here for a daily schedule.

Dozens of countries will stream or air each day's events, with some of them delaying broadcasts until prime time depending on the time zone. NBC, which has exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights for live coverage, will delay coverage until prime time in the United States, where Eastern Time is six hours behind Milan and Cortina. It will stream live competition on Peacock.

Peacock doesn’t offer a free trial, but a couple of other streaming services do: DirecTV, whose plans start with a five-day free trial and whose channel lineup includes all of those providing service (NBC, USA Network, CNBC, NBCSN); and Hulu + Live TV, whose plans start with a three-day trial.

This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history: The two primary competition sites are the city of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 250 miles away by road. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 100 miles east of Milan.

Other key dates to watch are:

• Feb. 7: First gold medal events.
• Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill.
• Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating.
• Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom.
• Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.
• Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony.

Two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, opened the World Cup season in dominant form. Vonn still plans to compete despite rupturing her ACL last week.

Eileen Gu is back in freestyle skiing, as is Chloe Kim in snowboarding. NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014, so watch for the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.

Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut, while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles, and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:

• NoVA's Ilia Malinin Wins 4th Straight U.S. Figure Skating Title
• NoVA Skater Ilia Malinin Wins Gold Again At World Championships
• 4 Athletes From VA To Compete In 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics
• Speedskater Erin Jackson, Bobsledder Frank Del Duca Picked As US Flagbearers For Winter Olympics
• Vonn 'Confident' She Will Race At Olympics Despite 'Completely Ruptured' ACL In Left Knee