Athletes laden with gear rolled into the Milan Olympic Village this week for the 2026 Winter Games. The Milan village is a brand-new complex that will house 1,500 athletes and team members during the Feb. 6-22 Milan Cortina Olympics. Here, Olympians will sleep, eat meals, work out and mix with ot her competitors for the next three weeks. Teams have decked out their room windows with national flags and symbols: Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, among others, are already making their presence known. China added a friendly panda, while Team USA hung a pair of four-story-tall banners featuring the Stars and Stripes. 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics 8 hours ago What are the new sports and events at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics? 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Jan 26 How to watch the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Room and board The athletes’ rooms are practical and equipped with the essentials. A single bed fit atop storage cubbies for suitcases and gear, while a stand-alone closet is stocked with a drying rack, pack of hangers, a laundry bag, a dry mop and extension cord. In the era of electronics, the room itself was outfitted with another four outlets — one next to the bed included two USB ports. Ice hockey player Hilary Knight gave followers a tour of her room, which shows Team USA athletes also have a microwave and minifridge in their rooms. The bathroom features the usual shower (reported to have good water pressure), toilet and sink — plus the very Italian bidet, or low porcelain sink that complements toilet paper with a clean rinse. The fixture is de rigueur in Italian residences but often perplexes visitors — including some athletes whose room videos have done double-takes. What’s the food like? Athletes eat in a cavernous dining center run by Italian caterers offering a range of choices. Team USA Ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik took to TikTok to rate their first meal experience, finding the pasta “fantastic,” and the mozzarella salad “fire.” Dutch speed skater Jutta Leederman, who’s dating American boxer Jake Paul, shared a tour of the dining hall in the Village, showing an array of buffet stations with protein options, vegetables, pastas, pizzas, focaccia and desserts. Amenities IOC partners have filled the village with activities for the athletes. Technogym has outfitted a gym with its latest equipment, including a Pilates machine. Powerade is backing a mind center where athletes can meditate, do yoga or just talk to the trained volunteers; Coca-Cola has stacked a recreational area with foosball, air hockey and a photo booth, as well as TV sets. When athletes arrive, they receive a free folding Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 special edition phone only for competitors, decorated with the Olympic laurels. Artificial intelligence is also entering one of the Olympics favorite spaces: pin trading. Athletes can trade pins by putting one of their own into a plastic ball, and then use AI powered by Chinese multinational Alibaba to instruct a robotic arm to randomly pick a new pin. Glam Athletes looking for a makeover or some glam can get free sessions from professional makeup artists. Italian cosmetic brand Kiko Milano is sponsoring a studio at the Olympic Village. Olympic Villages in Cortina, Bormio, Livigno, Anterselva and Predazzo The Olympic village in Milan is just one of six complexes housing athletes at the Winter Olympics. A temporary village has been built to house 1,100 athletes and officials in Cortina, while hotels and alpine lodges have been adapted in Anterselva and Bormio, each housing 400 participants, and nearly 1,000 in Livigno. In Predazzo, more than 900 will be housed in a school for Italy’s financial police that has been renovated for the Olympics and Paralympics. It will be returned to the police when the competitions are over, complete with two new pavilions. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less