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Federica Pellegrini, Italy’s most successful Olympic swimmer, poses with the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic medals during their reveal. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)
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The medals that will be placed around winners’ necks at next year’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Milano-Cortina were unveiled earlier this month at a splashy event in Venice full of Italian style – a preview of what’s to come as the Winter Games returns to Italy for the first time in 20 years.
Medals for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. (Photo by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Getty Images)
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The unveiling took place at the Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal, which has no Olympic connection but is certainly a good place to host a party. The medals themselves arrived by boat (the only way to make a proper entrance in Venice) ported by Italian Olympic and Paralympic superstars Federica Pelligrini and Francesca Porcellato.
Made of metal sourced from production waste at the Italian State Mint and Polygraphic Institute, the medals sport a subtle, elegantly textured split-face design, two halves joined by the Olympic rings or Paralympic agitos. Their back face has the name of the sport engraved near the outer edge as well as the Milano-Cortina “26” emblem, which can be written in a single stroke and is meant to evoke the kind of designs children sketch on panes of misted glass.
The Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games medals were unveiled at Palazzo Balbi in Venice. (Photo by ANDREA PATTARO/AFP via Getty Images)
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Naturally, there is symbolism. The two sides of each medal’s face honor the Olympic journeys of the athletes as well as those who accompany them on their quest, a reminder that whatever you accomplish, you never do it alone. As Raffaella Paniè, the Brand, Identity and Look of the Games Director for Milano Cortina 2026 puts it, “We conceived a medal that represents purity and a return to essence. With our medals, we celebrate the strength found in difference: two unique halves that join through the Olympic and Paralympic symbols to deliver a bold and unified message.”
The medals could also represent the fusion between Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. One is Italy’s textile paradise and design workshop, the other the superski resort town in the Dolomites where one goes to ski and be seen. Milan will host figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating, and the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Cortina will handle most of the snow events, as well as bobsleigh, curling, luge, and skeleton.
Other events will be dotted throughout the Italian Alps and the South Tyrol region. Verona will host the Olympic Closing Ceremony and Paralympic Opening Ceremony, making the 2026 Games the most geographically widespread Winter Olympics in history.
A skier in action during the Men’s Moguls Practice Session of the 2025 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup Finals in Livigno, Italy. LIvigno will host Aerials and Moguls competition at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
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New friends and flourishes add to the look of the Games
The medals, photographed with blue and pink ribbons, are more minimalistic than some past designs, providing a canvas for athletes and spectators to project their own ideas onto.
The medal reveal comes after Games mascots Tina and Milo, a jaunty pair of stoats named for Cortina and Milano, were unveiled during the Sanremo Music Festival in February, along with six little “snowdrop” friends who resemble nothing if not Powerpuff Girls. Metallic torches complete the stylish Winter Olympics ensemble, and if they seem a touch minimalist, it’s because organizers and designers have understood that in northern Italy, landscapes need little in the way of adornment.
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