At the heart of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games is more than just competition — it is also the food that fuels thousands of athletes daily. “During the Winter Olympic Games, thousands of athletes have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the facilities. What are they eating, and what role does nutrition play in the competition?” the organisers asked, highlighting the central role of meals in performance.

Across the Olympic villages, over 10,000 meals are prepared every day. In the Milan Olympic Village alone, kitchens serve around 3,000 eggs and 450 kilograms of pasta daily. Athletes can access 24-hour canteens offering balanced meals tailored to their needs: high-protein diets for cross-country skiers, lighter options for bobsleighers, and menus catering to vegans, celiacs, and various religious traditions, according to the Italian Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport.

“Food as energy, but also as a universal language and a tool for inclusion: in villages like the one in Cortina, everything revolves around one principle,” the Ministry said in a press release. “Those arriving from the other side of the world will be able to eat as if they were at home, without compromising their preparation or recovery.”

Nutrition is critical for athletes, especially during the intense activity of the Olympics. Olivia Morgan, a dietitian and sports nutrition expert at Mass General Brigham in Boston, told Euronews Health that energy intake must match performance demands, particularly during periods of travel, routine changes, and heightened emotions. “Making sure, as always, that we’re hitting our intervals throughout the day and keeping to things that we know we enjoy and that work really well for our body and enjoying the really fun things afterwards,” she said.

Winter sports have unique demands, from Nordic skiing to figure skating and biathlon. Kelly Drager, lead performance dietitian at the Canada Sport Institute Alberta, said Nordic athletes often train intensively in summer to prepare for competition. She also highlighted the added challenge of competing during peak seasons for respiratory viruses.

Carbohydrates remain a cornerstone of winter athletes’ diets. “I think protein has been a major focus in society right now, but really, for athletes, carbohydrates are kind of the king,” Morgan said. Pasta and pizza are central to the games’ menus, paired with local cheeses, cold cuts, fruits, and desserts to give athletes an authentic taste of Italy.

Morgan emphasised the importance of routine and balance in nutrition. “We need to eat balanced meals consistently throughout the day, and it’s boring nutrition; nobody wants to listen to it. They want to follow a fancy diet. They want to take a fancy supplement. But the real roots of nutrition are in that boring balance,” she said.

Nutrition experts also stressed that food should not be purely functional. Drager added that enjoyment, cultural preferences, and a positive relationship with food are essential. “The body is not just a machine and food is just not a means to an end,” she said.

At the 2026 Winter Olympics, meals are both fuel for elite performance and a celebration of local culture, ensuring athletes are ready to compete at their best while enjoying the flavours of Italy.

Uzbekistan has significantly expanded the use of advanced medical procedures across its healthcare system in 2025, health authorities reported, boosting domestic treatment capacity for children and lowering the need for costly overseas referrals. The move has raised questions about training, funding, and the long-term sustainability of such high-tech care as demand continues to grow.

By November, artificial intelligence (AI) was deployed in 43 types of medical procedures, while 179 new diagnostic methods and 199 treatment techniques were introduced in specialised centres nationwide. Regional hospitals reported performing 379 types of rare and complex surgical operations.

The National Children’s Medical Centre, led by Bakhtiyorjon Umarov, was established to centralise advanced pediatric services. The facility employs not only doctors and nurses but also technical specialists to operate and maintain complex medical equipment. It has received international accreditation from a United States-based body, meeting around 1,200 clinical and operational standards, and is the first standalone pediatric hospital worldwide to achieve this recognition.

The centre has conducted high-level procedures including bone marrow and liver transplants, laparoscopic kidney transplants, and stem cell isolation from peripheral blood. Multidisciplinary teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensive care specialists, nurses, and laboratory staff completed training in Russia, Belarus, Türkiye, China, and South Korea before the introduction of these treatments.

In pediatric liver transplantation, Uzbekistan performed its first operation on a seven-month-old infant using a living donor. Two liver segments were transplanted from the child’s mother, with both recovering steadily. Previously, children with congenital liver disorders were referred abroad, where similar treatments often exceeded $50,000. Bone marrow transplants for children with haematological and oncological conditions have also been introduced, with approximately 40 procedures completed at the National Children’s Medical Centre. Haploidentical stem cell transplantation has been applied when related donors were incompatible, replacing procedures abroad costing between $100,000 and $250,000. All high-technology pediatric care is funded by the state for children under 18.

Neurosurgery has advanced with robot-assisted and navigation-guided systems for operations on deep brain tumors and drug-resistant epilepsy. In one case, a six-month-old infant with intractable seizures underwent robotic surgery to remove the epileptogenic focus, successfully stopping the seizures.

Neonatal care has also seen remarkable achievements. Conjoined twins born prematurely at 33–34 weeks were separated during an emergency nine-hour surgery at the Tashkent regional branch of the Republican Specialised Mother and Child Health Centre in Chirchik. The twins shared parts of the intestine and urinary bladder, making the procedure extremely complex. Professor Bakhtiyor Ergashev, Head of the Neonatal Surgery Centre, noted that high precision was required due to tissue rupture and fluid leakage following birth.

The expansion of advanced pediatric care in Uzbekistan has reduced reliance on foreign hospitals, lowered treatment costs for families, and strengthened local expertise. Health authorities note that sustaining these capabilities will require ongoing investment in training, infrastructure, and staffing as demand for high-tech procedures continues to rise.

A new study suggests that the UK’s proposed smokefree generation law could lead to historically low levels of smoking among young people and deliver significant long-term health benefits. Researchers at the University of Nottingham projected that the policy could prevent tens of thousands of years of ill health, with an estimated 88,000 additional healthy life years gained by 2075 compared with no new legislation.

The proposed law, introduced by the UK government last year, aims to “break the cycle of addiction” by banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009. Under the plan, the legal age for purchasing tobacco would increase by one year each year, effectively preventing an entire generation from ever legally buying cigarettes.

Using detailed modelling, the researchers examined how smoking prevalence among 12 to 30-year-olds in England could evolve under the new policy. The findings suggest that rates among this age group could fall below five percent by the late 2040s, decades earlier than projected without the law.

The study highlighted that the health gains would be particularly significant in disadvantaged communities, where smoking is more common. About 30 percent of the additional healthy life years are projected to occur in the most deprived 20 percent of neighbourhoods. Researchers noted, however, that men and people in lower-income communities may experience the benefits later unless support is targeted to these groups.

Lead author Nathan Davies, a researcher at the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine, said the law could help stop young people from ever starting to smoke, accelerating progress toward a tobacco-free future. He added that the success of the policy would depend on effective enforcement, clear public communication, and accessible stop-smoking support, particularly in areas with high smoking rates.

Health organisations welcomed the research, emphasising that implementation would be critical. Alizée Froguel, prevention policy manager at Cancer Research UK, described the age-of-sale legislation as “a landmark step” in protecting future generations from the health and financial costs of smoking.

The study follows alarming statistics published by Wales’ public health agency, which reported that more than one in ten deaths among people aged over 35 between 2020 and 2022 were linked to smoking. Researchers believe that tailored communication campaigns and targeted investment in enforcement could help reduce health inequalities and ensure the policy’s benefits are shared more evenly across the population.

If passed, the UK would join a small group of countries with similar measures, including the Maldives, which bans tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2007. New Zealand, which had proposed a similar plan, abandoned its initiative in 2023. The UK law is still under consideration in Parliament, with its introduction expected to position the country at the forefront of global tobacco control efforts.