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Olympics advice?

I'm interested in attending the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026, and I'm hoping to hear from folks who have attended an Olympics previously. When did you book your tickets to the various events? I obviously would book flights and hotels as soon as they take reservations but what else should I consider? Any do's and don'ts to keep in mind?

Posted by
4077 posts

I attended the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary so that experience may be too long ago for current experiences, but one thing I remember from then that still goes on today are ticketing scams. Make sure you're buying from authorized sellers.

Posted by
2288 posts

"When did you book your tickets to the various events"

Just know that the most popular event tickets, such as Figure Skating, sell out super-quick and because the event is in Europe, a whole lot of events will likely fall into that the super-quick sell-out category..

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"one thing I remember from then ... are ticketing scams"

Geez, I don't recall much talk about ticketing scams in 1988. I bought several walk-up tickets for Long Track Speed Skating and Hockey from sellers just outside the doors - all of the sellers were minor Olympic team officials looking to cash in - never a problem.

Today, with the digital era, dilligence reigns supreme on who you would purchase from and how that ticket would get transferred to your smartphone.
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Oh, and I won the right to purchase 4 x Women's Figure Skating Final and 4 x Closing Ceremonies in the Ticket Lottery. I flew my mother and my sister to Calgary for the events . after all those years of watching figure skating on TV, my mother was absolutely over-the-moon to be at the Olympics, in person.

Posted by
23 posts

We went to London summer Olympics and are planning on Paris 2024.
If you are interested in the hospitality packages you will get some tickets for each night you stay. For the summer, buying tickets to individual events isn’t easy. There are essentially ticket dumps at various times over the year prior. Register for all the information sources through the host company Olympic site. Usually they have links to all the sites you need to be registered for. Often these are not set up until 2-2.5 years before the actual Olympics, so you have time.
For summer, the ticket sales start 1.5 -2 years before the actual start. It is hard to get many events which is why for the Paris Olympics we are going to try a hospitality package to get a couple of premium events.

We rented a VRBO in London more than a year ahead.
Good luck

Posted by
357 posts

I went to the Games in Pyeongchang. I think I bought them 6 or 7 months out, and then I bought tix for figure skating after landing at Incheon. I do remember thinking that the cost of tickets was very reasonable, but then again I wasn't buying for the medal events, except Speedskating. It was awesome to be in the stadium when the Koreans won medals.

Posted by
357 posts

The link joe posted is the official games site, and I bought my tickets from the official USA seller, Cosport. That info will be updated when tickets are available for sale.

Trip Advisor has an Olympics forum that can be pretty helpful.

One thing I remember is that they only accept VISA credit cards for any Olympics-related purchase as they are a sponsor.

Posted by
85 posts

Thanks, all, this is really helpful! I'll keep an eye out for the official ticket seller to share some info.