Arriving athletes bring 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Village to life

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Village started coming alive on Sunday, as athletes laden with gear rolled into a brand-new complex where they will sleep, eat meals, work out and mix with other competitors over the next three weeks.

The compound, which will house 1,500 athletes and team members during the Games, will be officially inaugurated on Monday by International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry. But the site has already been buzzing to life for several days, as athletes moved in.

Squads have decked out their room windows with national flags and symbols – Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands, among others, are already making their presence known.

China added a friendly panda, while the USA's contingent hung a pair of four-story-tall banners featuring the Stars and Stripes.

Artificial intelligence is also intersecting with one of the favorite hobbies at the Games – pin trading. Athletes can now trade pins by putting one of their own into a plastic ball, and then using AI powered by Chinese multinational giant Alibaba to instruct a robotic arm to randomly pick a new pin.