For many U.S. Olympic athletes, Italy feels like home turf : NPR

In January, the world’s top-ranked female cross-country skier, American athlete Jessie Diggins, raced down a steep slope with pole pumping in Italy’s Val di Fiemme for her third Tour de Ski victory.

Now, Diggins is back for the Olympics at the nearby Tessero cross-country skiing stadium in Val di Fiemme, a valley in the Italian Dolomites — on a course she has raced many times.

While the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place thousands of miles away from the U.S., around the business capital Milan and the ski resort town of Cortina, the competition venues in northern Italy are familiar grounds for many on Team USA.

“Our athletes compete there frequently. Many of them train there,” says Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “This is a place where we know we can shine.”

To help even the playing field, cross country officials have reconfigured the course. “Most of it is not the same; part of it is literally moving backwards,” says Diggins. “You have people like me who have been racing out there for a very long time, but at the same time everyone is learning it again,” she says.

In Val di Fiemme, athletes will also do ski jumping from steep, special ramps – and Nordic will combine both cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

Two hours to the north, driving on winding mountain roads, is Antholz-Enterselva. Biathlon Arena. According to Biathlon World, the valley is considered a “biathlon sanctuary”, where top athletes have been skiing and rifle shooting for more than 50 years.

American biathletes have a special advantage. “Our head coach for the last eight years has been from the Antholz Valley, born and raised,” says Deidra Irwin, a top American female biathlete. “Most of our Wax staff have been ski racing since they were kids.”

The United States has never won a medal in biathlon. Irwin says this could be their chance. “We’re kind of locals,” she says. “We’ve got all the local knowledge, we’ve got a good setup there at our house.”

About 40 miles south, the ski resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo will host curling and sliding sports such as bobsled and skeleton. Female alpine skiers will compete on one of the world’s most prestigious runs: the Olympia delle Tofen, which debuted at the 1956 Winter Games.

It plays a large role in the personal history of alpine skier Lindsey Vonn. “Each (skier) has their own mountain where they feel at home,” Vaughn says. “For me, it’s always been Cortina and Lake Louise. They’re my two favorite places.” Vonn has won several major milestone races in Canada, both at Cortina and Lake Louise.

Vonn, who is 41, is coming out of retirement for her fifth Olympic Games. “I have a good relationship with the mountain. I know what it requires. I know what it takes to win there.”

Vonn suffered a torn knee ligament in a high-impact crash a week before the start of the Games, but she announced this week that she would still compete.

Vaughn says, “I love this city; I love the atmosphere here. Everyone there has always welcomed me and treated me like a local.” A restaurant in Cortina named its Margherita pizza after him.

These mountains attracted him back for another Olympic race. “It’s such a beautiful place. It’s hard not to stand on top of that mountain and really realize why you love this game,” Vaughn says. “I’m excited to go back there and see the sunrise once again.”

Vonn suffered a fatal crash in a World Cup race a week before the Olympics. She announced that she would still compete at the Games, skiing with a brace on a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on her left knee. “As long as there’s a chance, I’ll try,” Vaughn says.

The 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will begin on February 6 with the opening ceremony at Milan’s hundred-year-old San Siro stadium and end on February 22 at another historic site in Verona: an old Roman amphitheater built in 30 AD where gladiators once fought.