Cold Ice, Hot Controversies: The Winter Olympics' Most Unforgettable Scandals

The 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics open February 6, and while athletes will battle blizzards on the slopes, the real storms have always brewed off the ice.

Attacks. Bribes. Doping. Mob ties. International incidents. The Winter Olympics don't just happen in harsh conditions. They create them. For over a century, these Games have turned ice rinks into crime scenes, ski slopes into battlegrounds, and medal ceremonies into investigations.

Welcome to 102 years of Olympic scandals served cold. Without further ado, here are the biggest scandals that rocked the Winter Games, plus the brewing storms already stirring controversy around Milano Cortina 2026.

1│The Attack That Shocked the World: Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan (1994)