The countdown is on for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

The torch relay is already underway and some of the top athletes are already making headlines. There are 16 sports in all, including some never seen before, and 116 gold medals are waiting to be awarded.

A couple takes a photo in front of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics countdown clock, in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

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 upscale 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.

Get ready for all of the events with this guide of things to know.

Key dates to know

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

Feb. 4: Competition begins (curling).

FILE -Italy’s Stefania Constantini, directs her teammate during the mixed doubles curling match against Sweden, at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 6, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

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.

FILE – A skier trains at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics venue in the Dolomite Mountains in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati, File)

How to watch

Dozens of countries will stream or air each day’s events, with some delaying broadcasts until primetime depending on the time zone.

That will be the case in the U.S., where Eastern time is six hours behind Milan and Cortina. NBC will carry showcase events at night while streaming sports on Peacock.

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Top storylines

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, raising American hopes of a golden run in Cortina. 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 December; 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 set of more than 350 mobile homes.

Russian athletes: Some sports federations are deciding whether to let Russians compete as neutral athletes but only after they are cleared by an independent review process 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.

In 2025, NYCHA closed on the financing for repairs at 16 developments through the controversial PACT program, and moved ahead on renovation plans for two other public housing campuses funded through the newer Preservation Trust, officials said Tuesday.

NYCHA’s Hylan Houses in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was one of three developments this year where tenants were asked to vote on what funding model they want. (Adi Talwar/City Limits).

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) says it made progress this year in chipping away at its multibillionaire dollar repair backlog through two—at times, controversial—initiatives that convert properties to the federal Section 8 program as means to drum up new funds.

In 2025, NYCHA closed on the financing for repairs at 16 developments through the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, which leases public housing developments to private management companies, officials said in a year-end update Tuesday.

The deals will fund over $1.6 billion in renovations for approximately 7,300 residents at those campuses, according to NYCHA, which says PACT has raised a total of $8.6 billion in repairs already completed or in construction since the city launched the initiative almost a decade ago.

Overall, NYCHA is converting more than 39,000 apartments to PACT—with plans to add another 20,000 in the years ahead. Under the arrangement, private developers collect Section 8 funds for the units they now manage, and undertake major renovation projects through financing the housing authority can’t access on its own.

It’s one of two programs NYCHA has turned to in recent years to help maintain its aging buildings after decades of federal government disinvestment in Section 9, which funds traditional public housing. A 2023 assessment found that NYCHA needs an estimated $78 billion over the next two decades to keep its properties in a state of good repair.

Curious About the Condition of Your Development?
Check City Limits’ NYCHA Repair Needs Tracker

In October, a building at the Mitchel Houses in the Bronx partially collapsed, underscoring the precarious conditions at many NYCHA developments—the majority of which have similar or more significant repair needs than Mitchel Houses does, a City Limits investigation found.

Many tenants, however, remain deeply skeptical—and some adamantly opposed to—PACT and the involvement of private companies in public housing. PACT managers have filed for eviction at higher rates than NYCHA, stirring fears about displacement, while tenants have complained of unresponsive management teams and shoddily done repairs. Thousands of violations persist across privately-run NYCHA campuses, a recent investigation by news site The City found.

As an alternative to PACT, New York launched the NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust in 2022—another effort to unlock extra repair funds by converting NYCHA apartments to the more lucrative Section 8 federal subsidy. Unlike PACT, apartments in this scenario remain under NYCHA management while the Trust, a public entity, oversees and finances the repair work.

The Nostrand Houses, the first NYCHA development that joined the Preservation Trust. (Scott Heins)

In 2025, the Trust executed its first contracts for major repairs at two NYCHA developments: Nostrand Houses and Bronx River Addition, which will collectively see $493 million in upgrades in the comings years, officials said.

This year “paved the Trust’s pathway to delivery,” Trust President Vlada Kenniff said in a statement Tuesday, saying those plans will move to “measurable construction activity” in 2026.

Developments can only join the Trust if tenants there vote to do so. So far, NYCHA has carried out votes at seven different developments since the Trust launched in 2022, where residents were asked to choose whether to join the initiative, convert to PACT instead, or remain in the traditional Section 9 program.

In addition to Nostrand and Bronx River Addition, residents at the Hylan Houses in Bushwick and Unity Towers in Coney Island previously opted for the Trust. Tenants at Randall Avenue-Balcom Avenue voted to convert to private management under PACT, while residents at two other campuses—Coney Island Houses and Throggs Neck Addition—voted to stay with Section 9.

NYCHA selected the Stanley M. Isaacs Houses in Manhattan as the next campus up for a vote, which will take place starting in February. The development, on the Upper East Side, is home to 1,131 residents in 633 units, and needs an estimated $248 million for repairs and maintenance over the next two decades, officials said.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Private Management Deals Raised $1.6 Billion for NYCHA Repairs This Year, Officials Say appeared first on City Limits.

With the Vikings no longer in contention for a playoff spot, some players have opted to get some lingering injuries fixed up.

After announcing earlier this week that edge rusher Jonathan Greenard will have surgery on his shoulder, head coach Kevin O’Connell announced that safety Josh Metellus will also have surgery on his shoulder.

Both players have been played on injured reserve.

In the absence of Greenard, edge rusher Dallas Turner will take on a bigger role. In the absence of Metellus, safety Jay Ward will take on a bigger role.

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For 37 years, the ballerinas playing Clara in Ballet Minnesota’s annual production of “The Classic Nutcracker” have worn the same ankle-length burgundy dress, finished with a pink petticoat and lace ruffles.

Cheryl Rist, who handles costumes for the company, found the dress in 1988 and modified it for the ensemble’s first Clara. She keeps it repaired, cleaned and ironed.

“It’s still in good condition,” said Rist, 71, of Woodbury, who tends to refer to the dress as she or her. “She still looks good on stage. I have her here now at my house because I was going to iron her and get her ready.”

Rist can’t remember the name or location of the store where she purchased the dress or how much it cost.

“I actually got it at an antique place,” she said. “It had the right feel to it. It didn’t look like what it looks like now. It was totally redone after we bought it. I added tons of ruffles. I wanted one that looks like a coat dress. On stage it reads very well.”

Rist chose a burgundy dress “because the color helps tell the story,” she said. “Clara’s mother loves that color. She wears an old-fashioned magenta color. The Sugar Plum Fairy wears a very dark magenta. It’s all connected to Clara’s dream. It’s all connected to her reality.”

Stagecraft

Clara wears the dress to her godfather Drosselmeyer’s annual Christmas party. When the ballerina leaves the stage, she immediately rips the dress off — revealing a nightgown underneath — and returns to stage, Rist said.

Rist designed the dress “to basically fall off Clara when she goes off stage,” she said. “Clara has, like, maybe 10 seconds to get back on stage, so it had to be a drop-away dress.”

The collar and the ruffles on Clara’s dress are also the collar and the ruffles of her nightgown, Rist said.

“The buttons are just big snaps that she just pulls open,” Rist said. “She runs off stage, rips the front of the dress open, and it falls down, and she goes back on.”

“It’s like a trap door,” explained Clara Jang, 13, of Woodbury, one of the ballerinas playing Clara in this year’s production. “You just step out of it so you can be ready for your next scene quickly.”

A helper off-stage is assigned the task of unsnapping the bow off the back of Clara’s dress, Rist said.

Wearing the dress

The dress can be adjusted for each ballerina’s height, Rist said.

Ballerina Clara Jang rehearses in the dress worn by the character Clara in the Ballet Minnesota production of “The Classic Nutcracker” at the company’s studio in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Cindy Chen, 13, of Woodbury, is the other ballerina playing Clara. She said it’s an honor to dance the role and wear the dress.

“Being able to add my name (to the list) makes me feel very happy,” she said. “I’m proud to go on stage in this mostly hand-made dress.”

The two teens share the four performances: three open to the public, one for schoolchildren. Cindy will perform on Friday afternoon and Saturday night; Clara will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

As for Clara Jang performing the role of Clara in the “Nutcracker”: Grace Jang said her daughter’s name had nothing to do with the ballet; “we just liked the sound of it.”

Ballerina becomes a seamstress

Rist, a longtime ballerina, serves as co-founder, director and teacher at the Classical Ballet Academy in St. Paul, the school connected with the company, Ballet Minnesota. She co-founded the academy with her husband, Andrew Rist, the show’s choreographer.

Cheryl Rist, who also made the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu, learned to sew after she became pregnant with the couple’s first child and had to stop dancing.

“I was 28,” she said. “The doctors told me I couldn’t dance when I was pregnant.”

Rist had friends in the costume shop, which was located on another floor at Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. “They said, ‘Well, why don’t you just come down here and do extra stuff that we need?’” she said. “While I was there, somebody came in asking for an RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) tutu because in those days, you couldn’t order tutus online. They looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to learn how to make a tutu?’”

Rist became a master at making tutus and other costumes, but she also continued to dance for another three to four years.

“Those were my best years actually,” she said. “When I came back to dancing, I had to redevelop my muscles in the right way.”

Retire the dress?

Rist said she expects Clara’s dress to remain in the rotation for at least the next few years.

“It’s still in good condition. It still looks really good on stage,” she said. “Eventually, it’s going to be replaced, but it’s going to take a while to find one. I’m going to start looking. It takes about two years to find something like that dress — just to find the lace and everything.”

The dress is worn for just four performances and one dress rehearsal a year at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, and then cleaned, placed on a hanger and stored, she said.

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Rist replaces one or two of the dresses used in “The Classic Nutcracker” each year. This year, she focused on restoring and repairing the Sugar Plum Fairy’s costume, she said.

“I took it totally apart and took off all the jewels, which is a ton of jewels, so it could be dry cleaned,” she said. “I have to put it back together.”

Clara Jang said she has loved “The Nutcracker” since watching her first production of it when she was in kindergarten.

“We watched some of it in class, and we listened to some of the music, and ever since then I’ve just been in love with the character of Clara,” she said. “It’s been a really special experience getting to be in this role. I feel destined to dance the role of Clara, since we share the name.”

Ballet Minnesota’s ‘Nutcracker’

What: The Classic Nutcracker
Where: The O’Shaughnessy, on the campus of St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul
When: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20; 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21
Tickets: $20-47
Purchase online: oshag.stkate.edu/events/