The 2018 Winter Olympics will take place from February 9 to 25, 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The host city was announced on July 6 2011 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), beating Munich (Germany) and Annecy (France). The 2018 Games will be South Korea’s second Olympics and the Republic’s first Winter Games after hosting the Summer Games in 1988. PyeongChang will also be the third Asian city to host the Winter Games after Japanese cities Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.
A total of 90 teams have qualified at least one athlete to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics, with 89 countries and the delegation from Russia taking part under the IOC flag. Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, and Singapore are also scheduled to make their Winter Olympics debut.
When are the Winter Olympics?
With the official Olympics schedule being released late last year, it was revealed that the competition for the 2018 Winter Games will begin on Thursday, February 8 with mixed doubles curling and ski jumping events starting on this day.
The official emblem of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games is displayed in Seoul
When are the Winter Olympics ceremonies being held?
The opening ceremonies will be held on Friday, February 9 and the closing ceremonies on Sunday, February 25 after the traditional finale of the men’s ice hockey final that will share the billing with curling and cross-country skiing.
Both opening and closing ceremonies are expected to be held PyeongChang Olympic Stadium which is a temporary structure with a capacity for 35,000 fans.
Where are the Winter Olympics?
The 2018 Winter Olympics will be hosted in PyeongChang in South Korea, a city 80 miles east of capital Seoul and 60 miles south of the Demilitarised Zone separating South and North Korea. This will be South Korea’s second time hosting the Olympics after Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988.
Which sports are in the Winter Olympics?
This Winter Olympics will see a total of 102 gold medal events, the most ever contested at an Olympic Winter Games.
There are a total of 15 varied disciplines across the seven sports in the Winter Olympics competition that include traditional events like the bobsleigh, figure skating, ice hockey, luge, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboard and speed skating.
Are there any new events for the 2018 Winter Olympics?
The programme for PyeongChang 2018 includes six new events: snowboard big air (men’s and women’s), speed skating mass start (men’s and women’s), curling mixed doubles and the Alpine team event.
The Winter Olympics schedule reveals that short track and speed skating sessions will take place in the evening, as well as the luge, ski jumping and biathlon which will occur under floodlights.
All Alpine skiing competitions will be held in the day so that spectators are able to attend many events in one day and will be split between two venues. The speed events (downhill, Super-G and combined) will take place at the Jeongseong Alpine Centre and the technical events (giant slalom, slalom and the new team competition) at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre.
What will the Winter Olympics medals look like?
The PyeongChang 2018 medals have been created by designer Lee Suk-woo with a texture that resembles tree trunks, a symbol of the development of Korean culture and the work put into the Games themselves. The medals also feature diagonal lines and three-dimensional Korean alphabet consonants that stretch across the face. Overall, a total of 259 sets of medals have been cast for the Winter Olympics and the gold medal weighs the most at 586 grams.
The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games medals have been created by designer Lee Suk-woo
How to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics
PyeongChang 2018 will be broadcast on BBC TV, Eurosport and digital platforms in the UK and on NBC and online for those in the US. The time difference for South Korea is nine hours ahead of London and 14 hours ahead of New York.
What is the mascot for the 2018 Winter Olympics?
The 2018 Winter Olympics mascot is Soohorang, a white tiger, chosen because of the tiger’s association with Korean mythology and culture and is a symbol of trust, strength and protection.
Paralympic Mascot Bandabi (L) poses with Olympic Mascot Soohorang in London, England
Will North Korea be competing?
Despite backlash, it was announced that North Korea would be sending a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games after officials met for high-level talks for the first time in two years. This delegation will include supporters, art performers, observers, a taekwondo demonstration team, journalists and athletes, who intend on marching with South Korea at the opening ceremony as they did in 2006.
The talks between North and South Korea were held in the Demilitarised Zone, otherwise known as the Panmumjom ‘peace village’ and five senior officials from each side attended. This came after Kim Jong-un revealed he was considering sending a North Korean team to the Olympics this year and the talks were scheduled after the US and South Korea agreed to delay their joint military exercises until after PyeongChang 2018.
Will Russia be competing?
In February Russia was banned from taking part in the Winter Olympics due to ‘systematic manipulation’ of anti-doping rules, according to the IOC. However, Russian athletes who can provide evidence that they are clean, will be ‘invited’ and will compete under the name ‘Olympic Athlete from Russia* (OAR).
Which British athletes are competing?
Team Great Britain are expected to bring back more medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze) than they did from the Sochi 2014 Games. With short track speed skater Elise Christie winning three gold medals and one bronze at the 2017 World Championships, she could become the first British athlete to win more than one medal at a Winter Games.
Lizzy Yarnold could become the first British athlete to defend a Winter Olympic title after her gold medal win in Sochi, while freestyle skiers James Woods and Isabel Atkin have the potential to win Britain’s first ever medals on skis. Katie Ormerod and Billy Morgan could win medals for snowboarding as well as the Team GB women’s curling team, led by Eve Muirhead, that won world bronze last year.
Which US athletes are competing?
Team USA snowboarder Jamie Anderson stole the show at Sochi 2014 where she earned a gold medal in the slopestyle snowboarding event and Kelly Clark will also return, renowned as one of the most celebrated American snowboarders in history.
Nathan Chen is also one to watch after becoming the first male figure skater to ever land five quadruple jumps in a single performance, in addition to skater Adam Rippon, who has qualified for the first time this year.
Which Australian athletes are competing?
Snowboarder Jarryd Hughes will be returning to the Winter Olympics this year after ranking number two on the FIS World Cup Ranking, but finishing in 17th place at Sochi 2014.
Matilda Friend will be joining her ice dance partner William Badaoui to realise their Olympic dreams and skier Britt Cox, the youngest athlete at the 2010 Games at age 15, will be the one to beat at PyeongChang 2018.
Where and when did the first Winter Games take place?
PyeongChang 2018 will be the 23rd Winter Olympics. The first ever Winter Games took place in 1924 in Chamonix, France after the IOC decided that there should be a separate ‘International Winter Sports Week’. The Games were a success with more than 250 athletes from 16 nations competing in the five sports: bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing and skating.
Where will future Olympic Games be held?
After the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Summer Games will be held in Tokyo in 2020. The next Winter Games will be held in Beijing in 2022 and it has been decided that the next Summer Olympics will be in Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.