Welcome to the 2026 Fantasy Winter Olympics

Welcome to the 2026 Fantasy Winter Olympics! If you're new to Fantasy Olympics this year - let's start with a brief introduction:

This is a unique Fantasy Olympics format we've been developing for almost 15 years that allows for participants to spend as much or as little time/effort as they'd like. If you want to spend a few minutes drafting countries and then have something extra to cheer for when you're watching Figure Skating or Hockey in February - then you're in the right place.

If you like in-depth research of Olympic events so you know the dark horse medal contenders for Mixed Doubles Curling and know the upset potential for the podium in Men's Biathlon, this is also the place for you.

As a benefit to all of us, here is a review of how it all works:

Fantasy Olympics consists of two main activities, a country draft over the week or so leading up to the Olympics and a daily event choice during the Olympics.

• The Country Draft (Pre-Olympics) - Over the next week or so leading up to the opening ceremony of the Olympics (February 6th), there will be a country draft where each player will select up to 6 countries. The countries you draft will become your team and you score points for their medal successes in selected events.

• The Daily Event Selection (During the Olympics) - During the Olympics, each player will independently choose an event for each day from a menu of 3 pre-selected Olympic events. The player will then score for all of their drafted countries who medal in that event. As we've done in previous years, you'll have a google submission form which will allow you to select all your events in advance (in case you have a busy February, or just don't want to worry about it). That form will also allow you to change your event selection if you change your mind prior to the day of the event.

 

The event selection is essentially a curated sampling of about 1/2 of the entire Winter Olympic Games schedule and it is recommended to take into consideration the Fantasy Olympics schedule while drafting countries.

The Details

Fantasy Olympics uses a simple scoring system and to help better illustrate the scoring, let's jump into the Daily Event Selection first, then we'll come back and take a look at the Country Draft.

The Daily Event Selection:

• Each day of the Olympics will have three events available to select from.
• Each player will select one of the three events for that day, scoring only for the event they select.
• Each player will score for any and all of their countries that medal in the event they select using a very simple scoring system:
•  Gold = 6 points
•  Silver = 4 points
•  Bronze = 2 points
• In the instance that a single country earns multiple medals in an event, the highest valued medal scores full points, any additional medals for that country score at half value.

Let's look at some scoring examples from past Olympics:

 

 2022 Men's Team Ski Jumping Medalists:

•   🇦🇹 Austria    (Alex)
•   🇸🇮 Slovenia  (Angela)
•   🇩🇪 Germany (Alex)

In 2022, let's say Alex drafted Austria and Germany. Let's say Angela drafted Slovenia.

• If Alex selected this event for Day 10, he would score a total of 8 points 
• +6 points for  Austria's Gold medal
• +2 points for  Germany's Bronze medal.
• Angela would score 4 points had she selected this event, however in our example she selected a different event among the options and thus scored no points for  Slovenia's Silver medal here.

Instead - Angela selected a different event on Day 10 - one where another of Angela's countries, the USA was even more heavily favored.

 

2022 Women's Monobob (Bobsleigh) Medalists:

•  Kaillie Humphries      USA     (Angela)
•  Elana Meyers Taylor  USA     (Angela)
•  Christine de Bruin      Canada (Daniel) 

In this event, individual athletes compete for the medals, rather than teams from specific countries but it works the same way. Angela doesn't have to worry about which specific athlete from the USA wins Gold, she scores for all medalists from all of her countries. However for competitive balance purposes, after the first medal a country wins, any additional medals from that same country score half the normal amount.

• Angela would score 8 points for selecting this event.
• A full +6 points for  USA's Gold Medal
• An additional +2 points for  USA's Silver Medal
• (Half value as USA already won a medal)
• If Daniel also selected this event for Day 10, he would earn +2 points for  Canada's Bronze Medal

Team Events:

The event schedule focuses on a lot of events that take place over the course of a single day. Some team events like Curling and Ice Hockey span the duration of the Olympics as they consist of many matches and eventually a knock-out tournament bracket:

• Men's Ice Hockey
• Women's Ice Hockey
• Mixed Double's Curling
• Men's Curling
• Women's Curling 

These events are also scored during Fantasy Olympics and at a premium. You don't need to do anything extra for these events (other than draft countries that have medal winning potential) and they reward slightly more points to countries that medal:

•  Team Gold = 10 points
•  Team Silver = 6 points
•  Team Bronze = 3 points

The Country Draft:

• There will be six rounds of the draft, each player will select up to six countries.
• First round draft order will be generated via random number generator.
• It is a snake-style draft (it will reverse order for the second round).
• For the speed and efficiency of the draft - players cannot trade draft picks or countries.

We've always used a straightforward draft method - for each of your draft picks you may select any country that hasn't been selected yet. If you're comfortable with the rules explanation so far - you can stop here and plan your draft with that in mind (and you'll do quite well).

For those who enjoy the evolving experiment of Fantasy Winter Olympics we have a new addition to the rules this time around...

(NEW in 2026!) Re-Draft Rules (A country can be drafted a second time, but it comes with a cost)

(Preamble) The Winter Olympics has fewer countries compete than the Summer Olympics and even fewer countries that win medals with any sort of consistency. Historically the Winter Olympics is about 1/3rd of the size in both the total number of events and the number of countries that medal. This makes it a tough format for Fantasy where it can be fairly top-heavy in terms of scoring potential.

So what is the Re-Draft?

When selecting a country in the draft, you may always select a not-yet-drafted country as normal. However if someone has taken a country that you also want, you can redraft that country at a cost:

• If the country you wish to redraft is:
• Taken in the current round, you swap draft pick positions in the following round with the player who originally drafted that country.
• Example: We're in the 2nd round and that country you want to redraft was taken right before you in the 2nd round - When you redraft that country, you would (as compensation to them) swap draft picks with that player in the 3rd round, and they would go before you.) 
•  Taken in the previous round, you forfeit your next round draft pick.
• Example: With my 2nd round draft pick, I decide to redraft a country that was taken in the 1st round. I forfeit my 3rd round draft pick and will pick next in the 4th round.

So what do you get? Well, both players will score normally that country for the Winter Olympics Daily Events (where the vast majority of the scoring occurs). There is a slight disadvantage to picking a country after someone else has - Only the first player to pick a country will score in Team Event points for that country.

• (i.e. only the first player to select Canada will score for Canada's medals in Curling and/or Ice Hockey, but any player who selects Canada will score for Canada's medals everywhere else).

Other Redraft Rules to note:

• A country can only be selected two times in total (Drafted once, and then Redrafted once).
• The same player cannot draft + redraft the same country (it would provide no additional benefit)
• Redrafting is not possible in the final round of the draft (as you have no remaining draft capital to give up as compensation).

Fantasy Olympics 2024 Overview

 

Welcome to the 2024 Fantasy Olympics! We're using the same format as previous years with the same emphasis on allowing participants to spend as much or as little time/effort as they'd like. As a benefit to all of us (myself included) here is a review of how it all works:

Fantasy Olympics consists of two main activities, a draft before the Olympics and a daily choice during the Olympics.

• The Country Draft (Pre-Olympics) - During the month of July leading up to the Olympics, there will be a 60 country draft where each player will select between 6 and 8 countries based on the initial draft order. The countries you draft will become your roster and you score points for their medal success in selected events.

• The Daily Event Selection (During the Olympics) - During the Olympics, each player will independently choose an event for each day from a menu of 3 pre-selected Olympic events. The player will score for all of their drafted countries who medal in that event. As we've done in previous years, you'll have a submission form which will allow you to select all your events in advance (in the case you have a busy July/August), and will also allow you to change your event selection if you change your mind prior to the final day of the event.

The event selection is essentially a curated sampling of about 1/6th of the entire Summer Olympic Games schedule and it is recommended to take into consideration the Fantasy Olympics schedule while drafting countries.

The Details

The Country Draft:

• There will be six rounds of the draft, everyone will select at least six countries.
• First round draft order will be generated via random number generator.
• It is a snake-style draft (it will reverse order for the second round).
• With historical Olympic medal dominance from top countries (US, China, Russia, etc.), additional compensatory draft picks will be given to players who don't end up with the #1 overall draft pick.
• No trading of draft picks/countries between players.
  

The Daily Event Selection:

• Each day of the Olympics will have three events available to select from.
• Each player will independently select one of the three events for that day.
  
• Each player will score for any and all of their countries that medal in the event they select.
•  Gold = 6 points
•  Silver = 4 points
•  Bronze = 2 points
• In the instance that a single country earns multiple medals in an event, only the most valuable medal will count.

Let's look at some scoring examples from past Olympics:

2012 Men's 200m (T&F) Olympic Medalists:
Usain Bolt   Jamaica   Yohan Blake   Jamaica   Warren Weir   Jamaica

In 2012, if a player drafted Jamaica and selected this event, only Usain Bolt's Gold medal (6 points) counted. No points would be scored for the additional medals for Jamaica.

Now let's say you were building a strategy around distance events on the schedule and decided to draft the countries of Kenya & Ethiopia specifically for their historically dominant distance athletes:

2016 Women's 10km (T&F) Olympic Medalists:
Almaz Ayana   Ethiopia   Vivian Cheruiyot   Kenya   Tirunesh Dibaba   Ethiopia

Assuming you drafted both Ethiopia/Kenya and selected this event on the schedule, you would earn a total of 10 points, Ethiopia's Gold Medal (6 points) and Kenya's Silver Medal (4 points). The Bronze medal is disregarded as Ethiopia has already scored for one medal this event (Gold).

Team Events:

The event schedule focuses on a lot of events that take place over the course of a single day. This leaves out many events that take place over the course of the Olympics like Basketball, Volleyball or Water Polo. Six of these events were also selected:

• Men's Rugby Sevens
• Men's 3x3 Basketball
• Men's Football
  
• Women's Handball
  
• Men's Beach Volleyball
• Men's Water Polo

These events are also scored during Fantasy Olympics and at a premium. You don't need to do anything for these events (other than draft countries that have medal winning potential) and they reward slightly more points to countries that medal:

•  Team Gold = 10 points
•  Team Silver = 6 points
•  Team Bronze = 3 points
  

 

A Note on Russia:

Some of you may remember that mid way into our Country Draft during the 2016 Fantasy Olympics news came out that Russia might be banned from the 2016 Olympics due to repeated doping violations. The Russian Athletes competed under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) the last several Olympics.

Because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, both Russia and Belarus are facing several restrictions - it is still a little bit unclear how this will look but most notably they are only allowed to send individual athletes (so Russia will not be present in team events).

As a result (and this has been true for the last few years) Russia isn't going to be participating under its own flag, and I don't believe they'll be competing under any alternative "ROC" name and flag. Our approach for the last few Olympics remains the same - if you draft "Russia" or "Belarus", you'll get all the Russian (or Belorussian) athletes that are cleared to compete. There aren't any "gotcha" moments for someone who wants to draft the Olympic athletes of Russia or any other country. So draft with confidence.

Fantasy Olympics 2020 Overview

Welcome to the 2020 Fantasy Olympics! We're using the same format as previous years with the same emphasis on allowing participants to spend as much or as little time as they see fit. As a benefit to all of us (myself included) here is a review of how it all works:

Fantasy Olympics consists of two main activities, a draft before the Olympics and a daily choice during the Olympics.

• The Country Draft (Pre-Olympics) - During the month of July leading up to the Olympics, there will be a 60 country draft where each player will select between 6 and 8 countries based on the initial draft order. The countries you draft will become your roster and you score points for their medal success in events.

• The Event Selection (During the Olympics) - During the Olympics, each player will independently choose an event for each day from a list of 3 pre-selected Olympic events. The player will score for all of their drafted countries who medal in that event.

The event selection is essentially a curated sampling of about 1/6th of the entire Tokyo Olympic Games schedule and it is recommended to take into consideration the Fantasy Olympics schedule while drafting countries.

The Details

The Country Draft:

• There will be six rounds of the draft, everyone will select at least six countries.
• First round draft order will be generated via random number generator.
• It is a snake-style draft (it will reverse order for the second round).
• With historical Olympic medal dominance from top countries (US, China, Russia, etc.), additional compensatory draft picks will be given to players who don't end up with the #1 overall draft pick.
• No trading of draft picks between players.
  

The Event Selection:

• Each day of the Olympics will have three events available to select from.
• Each player will independently select one of the three events for that day.
  
• Each player will score for any and all of their countries that medal in the event they select.
•  Gold = 6 points
•  Silver = 4 points
•  Bronze = 2 points
• In the instance that a single country earns multiple medals in an event, only the most valuable medal will count.

Let's look at some scoring examples from past Olympics:

2012 Men's 200m (T&F) Olympic Medalists:
Usain Bolt   Jamaica   Yohan Blake   Jamaica   Warren Weir   Jamaica

In 2012, if a player drafted Jamaica and selected this event, only Usain Bolt's Gold medal (6 points) would count. No points would be scored for the additional medals for Jamaica.

Now let's say you were building a strategy around distance events on the schedule and decided to draft the countries of Kenya & Ethiopia specifically for their historically dominant distance athletes:

2016 Women's 10km (T&F) Olympic Medalists:
Almaz Ayana   Ethiopia   Vivian Cheruiyot   Kenya   Tirunesh Dibaba   Ethiopia

Assuming you drafted both Ethiopia/Kenya and selected this event on the schedule, you would earn a total of 10 points, Ethiopia's Gold Medal (6 points) and Kenya's Silver Medal (4 points). The Bronze medal is disregarded as Ethiopia has already scored for one medal this event (Gold).

Team Events:

The event schedule focuses on a lot of events that take place over the course of a single day. This leaves out many events that take place over the course of the Olympics like Basketball, Volleyball or Water Polo. Six of these events were also selected, all from the men's side this time:

• Rugby Sevens
• 3x3 Basketball
• Field Hockey
• Beach Volleyball
• Baseball
• Water Polo

These events are also scored during Fantasy Olympics and at a premium. You don't need to do anything for these events (other than draft countries that have medal winning potential) and they reward slightly more points to countries that medal:

•  Team Gold = 10 points
•  Team Silver = 6 points
•  Team Bronze = 3 points

A Note on Russia:

Some of you may remember that mid way into our Country Draft during the 2016 Fantasy Olympics news came out that Russia might be banned from the 2016 Olympics due to repeated doping violations. As a result (and this has been true for the last few years) Russia isn't going to be participating under its own flag, but Russian athletes will be competing at the Olympics under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) name and flag. This ultimately won't affect anything for us, when someone drafts Russia, we'll know they're talking about the ROC, and there aren't any "gotcha" moments for someone who wants to draft the Olympic athletes of Russia or any other country. So draft with confidence.