As the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics begin, all eyes are on teams from around the globe proudly donning their countries’ uniforms for the opening ceremony on Friday — including Team USA in outfits designed by Ralph Lauren. 

It’s an exciting moment for the thousands of athletes who have come together in northern Italy to participate in the first Olympics shared between two host cities for what will be the most geographically widespread Winter Games in history.

The Winter Olympics will run through Feb. 22, with 116 medal events, including ski mountaineering in its Olympic debut. The Paralympics will take place from March 6 to March 15.

As the Games get underway, here’s a look at some of the Olympic opening ceremony outfits. This story will be updated with more of the noteworthy looks as the teams make their debuts.

Team USA 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

Ralph Lauren has designed outfits for Team USA for 10 consecutive Olympic Games now, and dressing the nation’s athletes for almost 20 years is an “honor that never fades,” says David Lauren, chief branding and innovation officer of the Ralph Lauren Corporation.

The opening ceremony uniform includes a winter-white wool coat with heritage-inspired wooden toggles, wool trousers and an iconic American flag intarsia wool sweater, Ralph Lauren says. The look includes a red, white and blue intarsia knit hat and mittens, a leather belt and suede alpine boots with red laces.

“Our design philosophy has always been about creating dreams and telling stories through style, and these uniforms, both timeless and modern, reflect the passion, optimism, and relentless pursuit of excellence that embody the American spirit,” Lauren said in a news release. “With Milan — one of the great fashion capitals — as this year’s backdrop, we sought to honor the city’s creative spirit while staying true to the enduring style that defines Ralph Lauren.”

According to the company, “each item in the uniforms is proudly manufactured in the United States.”

Canada 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

The 2026 Winter Olympics mark the third Games that Lululemon has designed Team Canada’s outfits. The Vancouver-headquartered athletic apparel company designed this year’s uniforms “with deeper focus on innovation and inclusion, while delivering both function and style,” says CEO Calvin McDonald, who called the uniforms “a technically superior kit.”

The outfits include maple leaf designs and a topographic map print, as well as colors ranging from deep red to “iceberg-inspired” greens and blues, Lululemon says.

“As a country that thrives in the cold, the Winter Games are particularly special to Canadians, and all of us at lululemon are incredibly proud to support Team Canada on the world’s largest sporting stage with product designed for athletes, and with athletes,” McDonald said in a news release.

Mexico 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

Charly has outfitted Team Mexico in uniforms that the Mexican Olympic Committee says are “a symbol of hard work, passion and Olympic commitment.”

This year, Claudia Sheinbaum became the first Mexican president to lead the flag ceremony for the country’s delegation to the Winter Games, the committee said.

Great Britain 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

Ben Sherman designed Team GB’s uniforms for the fourth consecutive Olympic Games, including a collaboration with five-time Olympic medallist Tom Daley to create hand-knit scarves and hats for the flagbearers for the opening and closing ceremonies. 

The designs were inspired by the Dolomite Mountains and bold pattern illustrations, Ben Sherman says, and incorporate heritage checks and Fair Isle knitwear.

The opening ceremony outfit includes a wool dogtooth topcoat, a mock-neck sweater with raised stripe accents and a repeating Union Flag motif, and sweat joggers, as well as a scarf, hat and Vibram-soled winter boots. 

Italy 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

Team Italy is wearing outfits designed by EA7 Emporio Armani. The brand’s partnership with the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) and Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP) began with the London Games in 2012, CONI says.

The late Giorgio Armani, who died in September, revealed the uniforms in May and said at the time: “I couldn’t imagine a more stimulating collaboration, uniting the city that has given me so much and sport. Working for and alongside Italian athletes is always a pleasure and a great source of pride.”

The ensembles include a down jacket, thermal ski jacket and trousers, all in milky white, as well as an oversized bomber jacket with an “Italia” print, among other items and accessories. 

Mongolia 2026 Olympic opening ceremony outfits

Team Mongolia is wearing ceremonial outfits designed by Goyol Cashmere for the opening ceremony, which it says “proudly present to the global sporting stage the resilience, wisdom, and warrior spirit forged over thousands of years by Mongolians who have endured the eternal winters of the Central Asian highlands.” 

The designs are inspired by attire from the Great Mongol Empire of the 13th-15th centuries. They’re made with the finest Mongolian cashmere, finished with silk trim and embroidered with traditional horn motifs, Goyol and the Mongolian National Olympic Committee said in a joint Instagram post.

“Using Mongolian cashmere — long relied upon by our nomadic people to endure harsh winters — we have created ceremonial deels that honor traditional history and culture, alongside premium cashmere knit casual ensembles inspired by alpine ski sweaters rooted in Western mountain culture, enriched with motifs of the Mongolian ger and nomadic life,” the post reads.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing a battle to stay in post after the fallout from his decision in 2024 to appoint veteran politician Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite the latter’s ties to the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer’s judgment is in the spotlight like never before, especially after the release last week of millions of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department showed how close those links were.

There’s widespread anger that the prime minister appointed Mandelson, a grandee of Starmer’s own Labour Party, to such a sensitive and high-profile post. Starmer had already sacked Mandelson after a first batch of emails were published in September, showing he remained friends with Epstein after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.

But the emails made public this week show that Mandelson, as a member of the then Labour Cabinet, also passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information in 2009 to the disgraced financier.

Starmer’s leadership has now been called into question. Several Labour lawmakers have said that he should quit, while others are clearly uncomfortable, following a series of missteps since the party returned to power in a landslide victory in July 2024.

Starmer is trying to fight back. He has apologized to the British public and to the victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

There are a number of ways in which Starmer could go, some more straightforward than others.

The simplest option is that Starmer announces his intention to resign, triggering an election for the Labour leadership. A resignation could possibly come if a delegation of Cabinet members tell Starmer he has lost too much support within the party or if members of his government quit in protest.

Those considered to harbor leadership ambitions include Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Home Secretary Shabana Mahood and former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, who had to resign last year after admitting she didn’t pay enough tax on a house purchase. The problem for Rayner is that an investigation into that is ongoing.

But there’s no clear front-runner.

Andy Burnham, the popular mayor of Manchester who was blocked from standing at a special election in the city later this month, would not be eligible as the leader must come from the parliamentary party.

Whoever does run, the election would likely take weeks, with Starmer likely staying in post until that concludes.

Were Starmer decide to resign immediately, the Cabinet and Labour’s governing body would likely pick an interim leader to be prime minister, probably someone not standing to be Labour leader. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy could fit the bill.

Under Labour’s rules, candidates must have the support of a fifth of the parliamentary party, which equates to 80 lawmakers.

Those meeting that threshold would then have to receive the support of 5% of the local constituency Labour parties or at three least party affiliates, of which two must be trade unions. Affiliates are groups or organizations that are deemed to have interests consistent with those of the Labour Party; including trade unions and co-operative and socialist societies.

Eligible members of the party and affiliates will then vote for the leader using an electoral system that ranks the candidates. The winner is the first candidate to secure over 50% of the vote.

King Charles III would then invite the winner to become prime minister and form a government.

If Starmer does not resign, he could face a challenge, potentially from within his Cabinet.

Unlike the Conservative Party, which has a history of getting rid of leaders such as Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and Boris Johnson in 2022, Labour does not have that muscle memory. No Labour prime minister has ever been dislodged, though Tony Blair announced his plan to resign in 2007 after a series of low-level resignations.

Challengers would have to meet the eligibility thresholds above, but Starmer would automatically be on the ballot.

Starmer faces a series of hurdles in the weeks ahead. The first will probably come within days when files related to the vetting of Mandelson are published. Starmer will be hoping they show the scale of Mandelson’s lies. Should they not, that could be a point of high jeopardy for the prime minister.

Another potential pitfall could be the special election in Gorton and Denton on Feb. 26, traditionally a safe Labour seat. However, this time it will be a tough fight, with challenges from the anti-immigration Reform U.K. on the right and the Greens on the left.

The decision to bar Burnham from standing also poses a risk for Labour. Though he was blocked on the grounds that a Burnham victory would trigger a costly special election for the mayoralty in Manchester, critics claim that Starmer did not want to see a potentially dangerous rival back in the House of Commons.

After that comes a raft of elections in May. Many in Labour fear the party could lose power in Wales for the first time since the legislature was created in 1999, fall way short in Scotland and get battered in local elections in England.

It’s clear that Starmer faces a difficult landscape.

And that’s barring surprise developments that could further rock his premiership.

“Events, dear boy, events,” Harold Macmillan, prime minister between 1957 and 1963, said when asked what the greatest challenges for leaders were.