2026 Winter Olympics medal predictions, odds: Expert reveals Milano Cortina best bets

Olympic expert Mike Tierney reveals his picks and best bets for the most overall medals won and gold medal totals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy

By Ross Kelly

Feb 6, 2026 at 12:47 pm ET • 3 min read

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The XXV Winter Olympic Games from Italy officially begin on Friday, with 92 nations and nearly 3,000 athletes competing. There will be 116 medal events, with new ones in skeleton, ski jumping, freestyle skiing, luge and alpine combined. However, the most popular sporting events remain ice hockey, figure skating, alpine skiing and snowboarding. Making 2026 Winter Olympics bets on medal count, both overall and gold medals won, will be some of the most popular Olympics predictions for Milano Cortina 2026.

After topping the medal table in 2022, Norway is the favorite to win both the most overall medals (-280) and the most gold medals (-195). The American rank second, in both regards, with +600 Olympic odds to claim the most medals, per FanDuel Sportsbook, and +350 odds to win the most golds. The host Italians come in at +5000 for the most total medals and at +4000 for the most Olympic golds. Before locking in any 2026 Winter Olympics medal futures or predictions, you need to see what SportsLine Olympic expert Mike Tierney has to say.

A national sportswriter whose work has appeared in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. At Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet over on Team USA's gold medal count (41.5) and over on Team USA's overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes. Then, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning under 10.5 gold medals (+110). At the last Winter Games in 2022, Tierney cashed in again by backing Team USA to go over 22.5 total medals (-110) as the Americans claimed 25 overall medals.

Now, Tierney has turned his attention to the 2026 Winter Olympics medal count for both overall medals won and golds won. He's only sharing his best bets at SportsLine.

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2026 Winter Olympics medal picks

For the 2026 Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina, Italy, we can tell you Tierney is predicting Team Norway wins the most Olympic gold medals (-195). Norway had both the most total medals (37) and golds (16) at the 2022 Games. Four years earlier, it also topped all nations in most total medals (39) while tying Germany for the most gold medals (14). For the 2026 Winter Olympics, the nation has odds-on favorites to win gold at a number of events including both men's and women's 5000m speed skating, men's skiathlon and men's relay in cross country skiing.

"They have topped the gold table at the three previous Games," Tierney said of the Norwegians. "In world championship events across all sports last year, they accumulated 17 golds, two more than runner-up United States - and considerably more than anyone else." Tierney has also locked in his pick for most overall medals won, as well as multiple longshot bets. See who he is backing at SportsLine.

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How to make 2026 Winter Olympics medal bets

Tierney also has three other Olympic best bets for medals won, all of which are plus-money, including one Olympic prop which returns over +2000. You can only see who they are here.

So who wins the most overall medals at Milano Cortina 2026, and which Olympic prop of over +2000 should you jump on? Visit SportsLine now to see the 2026 Winter Olympics best bets from an Olympic expert, and find out.