Milan’s San Siro stadium is the venue for the Friday, Feb. 6 opening ceremony, which is usually the most viewed moment of the Games as millions around the world will watch on official broadcasters. U.S. pop star Mariah Carey, crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli are among the performers. It begins at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern).

This will be the most spread-out Winter Games in history: The two primary competition sites are the city of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the winter resort in the Dolomites that is more than 250 miles away by road. Athletes also will compete in three other mountain clusters besides Cortina, while the closing ceremony will be in Verona, 100 miles east of Milan.

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Time difference

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Residents here in the Eastern Time (ET) zone watching live coverage of the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina, Italy — either on television or on the internet — will have to subtract six hours from the times the events are held in Italy, as Central European Time (CET) is six hours ahead of New York state.

The full schedule can be found online at tinyurl.com/2p3asyuj.

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Key dates to know

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Competition runs Feb. 4-22. Here are some of the dates to mark on your calendar:

Feb. 4: Competition begins (curling).

Feb. 6: Opening ceremony.

Feb. 7: First gold medal events.

Feb. 8: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing downhill.

Feb. 13: Gold medal, men’s figure skating.

Feb. 18: Gold medal, women’s Alpine skiing slalom.

Feb. 19: Gold medal, women’s figure skating. Gold medal game, women’s ice hockey. First gold medals in ski mountaineering, a new Olympic sport.

Feb. 22: Gold medal game, men’s ice hockey. Closing ceremony.

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How to watch

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Dozens of countries will stream or air each day’s events, with some of them delaying broadcasts until prime time depending on the time zone. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock.

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Top storylines

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Athletes to watch: Two of the most decorated Alpine skiers in history, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, opened the World Cup season in dominant form. Vonn still plans to compete despite rupturing her ACL last week. Eileen Gu is back in freestyle skiing, as is Chloe Kim in snowboarding. NHL players are back on Olympic ice for the first time since 2014 so watch for the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.

Venues: All eyes are on the hockey arenas in Milan, which were still under construction in January; the main rink will be about 3 feet shorter than NHL and PWHL players are used to. And the athletes’ village in Cortina is a collection of more than 350 mobile homes.

Russian athletes: A handful of Russians are competing as neutral athletes — after they were cleared by an independent review to ensure that they have not publicly supported the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated with Russia’s military or other forces.

What’s new: Ski mountaineering will make its Olympic debut while skeleton has added a mixed team event, luge has added women’s doubles and large hill ski jumping added women’s and men’s super team events.

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Cyber attacks

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Italy has foiled a series of cyberattacks targeting some of its foreign ministry offices, including one in Washington, as well as Winter Olympics websites and hotels in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Wednesday, Feb. 4.

Talking to reporters during a trip to the U.S. capital, Tajani said the attempted attacks were “of Russian origin,” but didn’t provide additional details.

“We prevented a series of cyberattacks against foreign ministry sites, starting with Washington, and also involving some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina,” Tajani said, just two days from Friday’s opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium.

The Winter Olympics got underway Wednesday with the first curling matches in Cortina.

Italy’s Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi told parliament on Wednesday that 6,000 security officers are being deployed across the Games sites — which stretch from Milan to the Dolomites — including bomb disposal experts, snipers and anti-terrorism units.