Milan Cortina 2026: The Games The British Finally turned up by Yves de Contades
There is a peculiarly British relationship with winter sports, one that has historically involved a great deal of enthusiasm, several layers of thermal underwear, and a podium finish that materialises with roughly the frequency of a solar eclipse. We have always rather enjoyed going to these Games. The après-ski, the fondue, the opportunity to stand at the bottom of fearsome mountain descents looking deeply impressed while wearing a very good hat. The actual winning part has tended to be less reliable. Until, that is, the glorious fortnight of 6th to 22nd February 2026, when the Olympic Winter Games descended upon the somewhat improbable combination of fashionable Milan and magnificent Cortina d’Ampezzo, and Great Britain decided, apparently without warning, that it was time to be rather good at all this.
Voilà. Five medals. Three of them gold. Britain’s best Winter Olympic performance in terms of gold medals, ever. Full stop. One packs away one’s habitual British winter sports narrative (plucky, game, narrowly fifth) and reaches instead for the superlatives. Reluctantly, of course. We are not the sort of nation that gloats. But secretly, magnificently, we are absolutely delighted.
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