29 January – 26 February 2026
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games may have featured a small athlete group, but the story they told reached far beyond the slopes and halfpipes of northern Italy.
Across social media and the Team Ireland website, the Games period produced some of the strongest digital results the organisation has recorded: millions of people reached, thousands of new fans, and engagement levels that compare favourably with sports organisations anywhere in the world. All of it achieved entirely through organic content.
Millions Reached Through Organic Content
Over the course of the Games, Team Ireland’s content generated more than 6.2 million impressions and video views across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn. When broader page and profile visibility is included, the numbers grow significantly – Instagram’s profile alone recorded 4.5 million additional impressions, with Facebook adding a further 2.3 million.
Instagram and Facebook carried the largest share of that reach, with 3.2 million and 2.1 million post impressions respectively, reflecting the continued strength of those platforms for Olympic storytelling.
TikTok also played an important role in expanding reach during the Games.
TikTok: Efficient Reach and Audience Growth
TikTok proved to be one of the most efficient reach platforms during Milano Cortina. Just 14 posts were published over the Games period, generating 602,000 total video views – TikTok’s equivalent of impressions – alongside 58,000 reactions, 389 comments, and 2,800 shares.
Team Ireland’s TikTok content averaged an 8.62% engagement rate, a figure that compares favourably with typical engagement levels for sports organisations on the platform.
The channel also recorded one of the strongest audience growth rates during the Games, adding 5,500 new followers and bringing the total TikTok community to 31,000.
Taken together, the results highlight TikTok’s growing role as a discovery platform, introducing new audiences to Team Ireland and Olympic athletes during Games periods.
Strong Engagement Across Every Platform
Strong engagement was consistent across Team Ireland’s channels. LinkedIn recorded 9.84% engagement, Facebook 6.42%, X 5.31%, and Instagram 5.21%, – figures that meet or exceed our benchmarks for Games content.
Across the Games period, content generated 73,000 reactions on Instagram, 58,000 on TikTok, and 40,000 on Facebook, while Instagram also produced 8,500 shares and 4,400 comments.
Interactive content, including Games-time giveaways, drove some of the highest levels of comments and shares during the period, demonstrating the effectiveness of combining Olympic storytelling with opportunities for fans to actively participate.
Athlete Stories Brought Fans to the Website
The Team Ireland website told a similar story. Sessions were up 348% and page views up 323% on the previous 30 days, with 56,465 new users discovering the site during the Games.
Most arrived through search, actively looking for information about the athletes they had seen competing.
Traffic spikes aligned directly with key athlete moments, particularly around the Winter Olympic team announcement and interest in freeski athlete Ben Lynch.
Athlete profiles accounted for 33% of all top-page traffic, while the long-form Introducing series profiling each athlete recorded average reading times of over 60 seconds – among the highest engagement levels anywhere on the site.
The pattern is clear: during Games time, audiences come looking for people. The athletes are the story, and when that story is told well, it brings fans deeper into the Team Ireland world.
Source: olympics.ie Internal Report (20 Jan – 23 Feb 2026) | MiCo Social Stats Report (29 Jan – 26 Feb 2026). All figures organic unless otherwise stated.