FIS digital takes flight at Milano Cortina 2026: how Olympic momentum became a social-first success story

The Olympics create a rare kind of attention: global, emotional, and fast-moving. Most organizations can ride that wave. Very few can steer it - turning peak moments into daily habits, new audiences, and measurable community growth.

From February 6 - 22, 2026 FIS did exactly that by running a disciplined, social-first publishing system under one umbrella brand: I LOVE SNOW – Passion Beyond Limits - built for speed, athlete-led storytelling, and platform-native formats across multiple disciplines.

More than 640m reach, 15m engagements, and +216k followers across FIS social

Across FIS Olympic discipline channels (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, X, WhatsApp), the Games window delivered:

• 5,400 posts published

• 643.5 million total reach

• 15.1 million engagements

• 216,900 new followers gained in 16 days

Two themes stand out behind these totals:

1) Broad-based performance across disciplines. Alpine Skiing led overall performance, with Freestyle Skiing close behind - and viral moguls previews content dominated, claiming the top three posts by reach and engagement across FIS channels.

2) The right formats traveled fastest. The strongest-performing vertical videos reached truly global scale, with FIS Freestyle’s top two TikTok posts achieving 33.5 million reach with 1.6 million engagements, and 30.9 million reach with 1.2 million interactions.

These outcomes underline a core advantage: FIS operates as a connected discipline network. When editorial, publishing patterns and packaging are aligned, a breakthrough moment in one discipline can elevate the wider ecosystem - bringing new audiences into snow sports as a while, not just a single event.

Global discovery: winter sports audiences are bigger than “winter countries”

One of the strongest signals of success was the geography of reached audiences. The Olympics did not only deepen traditional markets; it brought demand in non-traditional ones to the surface - especially through discovery on TikTok and Instagram.

Alpine Skiing: Brazil as a breakout reach market on Instagram:

• Brazil ranked #2 for FIS Alpine Instagram with a reach of 10.5%, ahead of the US (8.3%) and Switzerland (8.1%) and behind Italy (21.7%)

• 240K followers on TikTok, of which 40% are female, 60.3% are 34 years or younger (29.7% 24 years or younger), 10.5% from USA, 8.5% from Italy and 8.3% from Austria

Freestyle (Moguls, Aerials): Global mass appeal to younger audiences   

• 88.7M reached on TikTok during the last 30 days, from which 78.8% are 34 years or younger and from USA (8.4%), Canada (7.3%), Indonesia (4.7%), Italy (4.4%), Thailand (3.8%), Vietnam (3.7%), France (2.9%) and Kazakhstan (2.4%)

• 82.5K followers on TikTok, of which 35% are female, 60.6% are 34 years or younger, 16.9% from USA, 6% from France and 5% from United Kingdom.

Nordic Combined: Diversified reach and followers on TikTok    

• 41.2K followers on TikTok, of which 39% are female, 35.6% 34 years or younger, 25.7% from USA, 8.6% from Italy and 7.7% from France

• Biggest views during the last 30 days: 40.9% from Vietnam, 25.2% from Finland and 9.3% from USA

Snowboard Racing (Snowboard Alpine, Snowboard Cross): Strong TikTok traction in Central Asia + MENA

• 45.5K followers on TikTok, of which 38% are female, 46.8% 34 years or younger, 24.7% from USA, 10.8% from Italy and 7.6% from France

• 4.3M views on TikTok during the last 30 days, of which 45% are female, 62.2% 34 years or younger, 28.7% from Kazakhstan, 20.3% from Egypt 18.7% from Sweden, 17.3% from Saudi Arabia and 9.1% from United Arab Emirates

Park and Pipe: Strong female community due to global reach and female stardom

• 115K followers in TikTok, of which 55% are female, 66% are 34 years or younger, 19.5% are from USA, 5.8% from Germany and 5% from France.

Growing new audiences and capabilities in China

Market development work in China continued building visibility and community across key platforms. Over the analyzed period (October 25–December 25, 2025), performance showed record-high impressions and engagements overall, with Douyin and RED driving the strongest growth:

• Weibo: 5.2 million impressions, 11k engagements, -141 net follower change

• Douyin: 21.8 million impressions, 174k engagements, +7.4k follower growth

• RED: 4.05 million impressions, 144k engagements, +3.7k follower growth

This reflects a clear shape to the opportunity: strong visibility and engagement -particularly on Douyin and RED - paired with a need to keep strengthening follower conversion on Weibo despite high impressions.

One passion umbrella, many disciplines: I LOVE SNOW as a connected ecosystem

FIS succeeded digitally during the Olympics because it did not treat each sport as a separate island. Under one clear umbrella - I LOVE SNOW – Passion Beyond Limits -the content looked and felt connected across disciplines, so fans who arrived for one highlight could more easily discover more and stay within the wider snow sports world.

That umbrella was supported by a repeatable approach:

• Fast, shareable content when moments happened (within rights and access limits)

• Short explainers that helped casual viewers understand what they were seeing

• Athlete-led storytelling that shifted attention from results to people

• Daily “appointment” formats that sustained attention between competitions

The goal was not only to keep pace with the Games, but to add context and personality - giving fans a reason to return beyond a single medal moment.

The I LOVE SNOW hub: personal narratives at scale

On fis-ski.com/ilovesnow, FIS brought the Olympics to life through an athlete-led storytelling hub - where audiences could follow the people behind the performances, not only the results.

During the Games window, the I LOVE SNOW microsite delivered:

• 108.8k page impressions

• 27.5k unique users

Two original series anchored this athlete-led storytelling layer:

• Through My Eyes (41 episodes): 6.5 million reach, 102k engagements, 20.9k views on FIS TV

• A Special Letter (30 episodes): 4.5 million reach, 69.7k engagements, 19.2k views on FIS TV

Together, these formats strengthened FIS’ ability to deliver emotionally compelling, athlete-centric storytelling that deepens fan connection across platforms - especially in core markets across the Americas and Europe, where longer-form and VOD consumption remains strongest.

Real Talk: daily “appointment viewing” with social impact

The daily I LOVE SNOW Real Talk show added a consistent rhythm to Olympic storytelling - creating “always-on” narratives that could be repackaged into short social clips: athlete reactions, behind-the-scenes moments, and explainers that kept the conversation moving between competitions.

Across the Games period, Real Talk delivered:

• 190 posts

• 3.1 million reach

• 65.7k engagements

• 2.04% engagement rate

The show also established a scalable format for the future: personality-driven, timely, and designed to create original perspectives even in a rights-restricted environment.

Beyond social: owned platforms deepened the relationship

The strongest Olympic strategies do not end on social. They convert attention into sustained engagement across owned platforms - where fans can return for schedules, results, highlights, and deeper stories.

During the Games period:

FIS website (fis-ski.com)

• 28.5 million total page views

• 1.8 million unique users

• 1 million new users

• 2 million monthly active users in February 2026 (February 1–23)
  Top territories included Poland (252k), Slovenia (205k), the USA (156k), Italy (143k), Germany (114k), Switzerland (97k), and Sweden (93k).

FIS App

• 202k engaged unique users during the Games

• 213k monthly active users in February (February 1–23)

• 12k new users acquired

• Average engagement time per active user rose +24.9% to 1h19m
  Top territories included Italy (36k), Switzerland (28k), Germany (21k), Sweden (19k), Austria (17k), the USA (13k), and France (13k). Usage skewed to iOS (72.3%) versus Android (27.7%), a helpful signal for future product and distribution planning.

Community engagement extensions: gaming and newsletter

Two additional touchpoints helped extend engagement beyond social feeds:

FIS Gaming Zone: Olympic Daily Quiz

• 2,341 players over 5–6 days (February 6–22)
  This was 7.4% fewer players than the WSC podium picker, with the key context that the WSC game ran for roughly six weeks, significantly longer than the Olympic daily quiz window.

Olympic Daily Newsletter

• 37k total sends

• 60.2% average unique open rate (vs. 37% benchmark)

• 4.9% average click rate (vs. 2.3% benchmark)

In summary

Milano Cortina 2026 demonstrated what is possible when Olympic-scale attention meets a structured publishing engine: one umbrella brand, platform-native formats, and athlete-led storytelling that travels across disciplines.

The result was 643.5 million reach, 15.1 million engagements, 5,400 posts, and 216,900 new followers in just over two weeks - paired with deeper engagement across owned platforms, including 28.5-million-page views on fis-ski.com and an average of 1h19m engagement time in the FIS App.