Women’s sport has truly come of age in recent years. Audiences are growing, record-breaking sponsorship deals are being signed, and in 2025 we saw the nation unite behind our women’s teams – the Lionesses and the Red Roses – as they lifted their trophies.
Now, the 2026 Winter Olympics offer a new opportunity to experience women’s sport in a different light: to witness extraordinary athletes pushing limits, taking risks, and pursuing the sports they love.
For too long, women have been underestimated in adventure sports – labelled as risk-averse or too fragile to compete at the highest level.
These Games give us the chance to prove those stereotypes wrong. Women belong in adventure sport. They thrive in high-risk environments. And they are strong, skilled, and courageous.
Winter Olympics 2026 medal tables
During the Games, we’ll be keeping track of the traditional Olympic medal tables, but with a twist. We’ll break down the results by gender and find out which nations are championing their female athletes.
We’ll be updating the tables daily – check back to see how tracking medals by gender changes the results!
Last updated: 22nd February
Top 8 countries (by number of women’s gold medals)
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held between Friday 6th and Sunday 22nd of February.
The Games are being held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy. This is the third time Italy has hosted the Winter Olympics, having first hosted in 1956 and 2006.
Highlights from the 2026 Winter Olympics will be available on the BBC, with full coverage available on TNT Sports and Discovery+.
Alpine skiing – Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre and Stelvio Ski Centre
Short-track speed skating – Milano Ice Skating Arena
Skeleton – Cortina Sliding Centre
Ski jumping – Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium
Ski mountaineering – Stelvio Ski Centre
Snowboarding – Livigno Snow Park
Speed skating – Milano Speed Skating Stadium
Team GB women to watch
Tabitha Stoecker: Tabby started skeleton racing at 19 after being scouted by Team GB. She was previously a circus performer and gymnast, and this is her first Olympic Games. She won silver at the 2026 European Championships in St Moritz, so she is certainly a medal contender. Listen to our podcast with Tabby here.
Mia Brookes: Mia is a 19-year-old snowboarding sensation. This is her first appearance at the Winter Olympics, but is expected to achieve great things for Team GB. She’s had a phenomenal start to her career, becoming Britain’s first-ever world champion in snowboard slopestyle in 2023. She also holds back-to-back overall World Cup titles in big air.
Zoe Atkin: Zoe is the current freeski halfpipe World Champion and will be targeting gold at Milano Cortina. After finishing ninth at the Beijing Games in 2022, Zoe considered quitting the sport, but has come back even stronger.
Lilah Fear: Alongside her ice dancing partner Lewis Gibson, Lilah is vying for Britain’s first Winter Games medal in figure skating since Torvill and Dean’s success in 1994. The pair won a World Champs bronze last season, and their routine features music from The Proclaimers and the Spice Girls.
Sophie Jackson: After Eve Muirhead’s retirement, fellow Scottish curler Sophie has the opportunity to replicate her success if she can lead her curling team to the final on February 22. Sophie took up the sport in primary school and most recently won silver at the 2025 European Curling Championships.
Jennifer Dodds: Jennifer won Gold in curling at the 2022 Beijing games. This year, she will compete in the women’s division as well as in a mixed doubled team with Bruce Mouat. The pair won silver at the World Championships in 2025, so they’ll be looking to upgrade in 2026.
Women’s history at the Winter Olympics
The first Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. While women were permitted to compete, only 11 out of a total 258 competitors were female and the only sport they could compete in was figure skating.
This reflects society’s attitudes towards women at the time: happy to watch women in traditionally feminine pursuits like dance, but not in the male domain of skiing or snowboarding.
By the 1936 Games, held in Garmisch-Partenkirkcen in Germany, women could compete in combined alpine skiing. And by 1998, women’s luge, biathlon, ice hockey and curling had been added to the programme.
Now in 2026, a record 47% of the athletes in Milano Cortina will be female, according to the International Olympic Committee. Women can compete in all the same sports as men, except for one: Nordic skiing combined. This has been the topic of much criticism online ahead of the Milano Cortina Games.
American nordic combined skier Annika Malacinski has spoken out about how difficult it has been to watch her brother be selected for Team USA, despite training with him and competing at a similar level: skiing the same courses and doing the same jumps.
“I am not missing out because of my level. Not because of my work. Not because of my commitment. I’m missing out because I am a woman.” said Annika in a post on social media.
Annika’s fight does not exist in a vacuum: it represents the many women who have fought for a place in sport, and in the Olympics. When we tune in to watch all the incredible women competing in 2026 – for Team GB and beyond – we’ll remember how they got there.
