2018 Winter Olympics

XXIII Olympic Winter Games

PyeongChang 2018 Olympics official emblem
Host city	Pyeongchang, South Korea
Motto	Passion. Connected. Korean: 하나된 열정.
Nations participating	100 (Estimated)
Events	102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
Opening ceremony	9 February
Closing ceremony	25 February
Stadium	Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium

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2018 Winter Olympics Bid process (bid details) Venues Torch relay Mascots Broadcasters Opening ceremony (flag bearers) Chronological summary Medal table (medalists) World and Olympic records Concerns and controversies Closing ceremony (flag bearers) Paralympics IOC KOC POCOG

The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver;^[1] Hangul: 평창 동계 올림픽; hanja: 平昌 冬季 올림픽; RR: PyeongChang Donggye Ollimpik) and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 9 to 25 February 2018, in PyeongChang, South Korea. It will be the first winter Olympics to be held on mainland Asia.

The elected host city was announced on 6 July 2011 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), after the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa. Other candidates that applied to host the games were Annecy, France and Munich, Germany. Pyeongchang won on its third consecutive bid, having lost previously to Vancouver in Canada and Sochi in Russia.

It will be the first Winter Olympic Games and second Olympic Games in South Korea; the 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Seoul. Pyeongchang will also be the third Asian city to host the Winter Games after Sapporo, Japan (1972) and Nagano, Japan (1998). It will be the first Winter Olympic Games since 1992 to be held in a ski resort town.

Bidding

PyeongChang launched bids to host both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games. However, despite having the most votes in the first round of voting, Pyeongchang lost in the final round of voting by three and four votes respectively. It finally won its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in the first round of voting. They received 63 of the 95 votes cast, giving them the required majority to be elected as host city.

Munich also launched a bid to host these Games. Prior to Beijing's successful 2022 Winter Olympics bid, Munich would have became the first city to host both the Winter and Summer Games, having previously hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics, but only received 25 votes. Annecy launched a bid, but failed to secure public support from local citizens. Their bid ultimately just received seven votes.

48 votes were needed for selection.

2018 Winter Olympics bidding results
City	Nation	Votes
PyeongChang	South Korea	63
Munich	Germany	25
Annecy	France	7

Preparations

On 5 August 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the formation of the Pyeongchang 2018 Coordination Commission.^[2][3] On 4 October 2011, it was announced that the Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics will be headed by Kim Jin-sun. The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) was launched at its inaugural assembly on 19 October 2011. The first tasks of the organizing committee was to put together a master plan for the games as well as forming a design for the venues.^[4] The IOC Coordination Commission for the 2018 Winter Olympics made their first visit to Pyeongchang in March 2012. By then, construction was already underway on the Olympic Village.^[5][6] In June 2012, construction began on a high-speed rail line that will connect Pyeongchang to Seoul.^[7]

Olympic venues 2018

The International Paralympic Committee met with the Pyeongchang 2018 organizing committee for an orientation in July 2012.^[8] Then-IOC President Jacques Rogge visited Pyeongchang for the first time in February 2013.^[9]

On 27 June 2014 the PyeongChang Olympic Committee announced their mascot selection contest.^[10] The contest ran from 15 September 2014 to 30 September 2014.

The 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games were held in Pyeongchang.

The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games created PyeongChang WINNERS in 2014 by recruiting university students living in South Korea to spread awareness of the Olympic Games through social networking services and news articles.^[11]

Venues

Dragon Valley Ski Resort

Pyeongchang Mountain cluster

Alpensia Sports Park

The Alpensia Resort in Daegwallyeong-myeon will be the focus of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.^[12][13]

• Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium – opening and closing ceremonies^[14]
• Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre – ski jumping, Nordic combined, snowboarding (big air)
• Alpensia Biathlon Centre – biathlon
• Alpensia Cross-Country Centre – cross-country skiing, Nordic combined
• Alpensia Sliding Centre – luge, bobsleigh, and skeleton
• Olympic Village
• Yongpyong Alpine Centre – alpine skiing (slalom, giant slalom)

Stand-alone venues

• Bokwang Snow Park – freestyle skiing and snowboard
• Jeongseon Alpine Centre – alpine skiing (downhill, super-G, and combined)

Gangneung Coastal cluster

The coastal cluster is located in the city of Gangneung. The Gangneung Olympic Park will include the following four venues:

• Gangneung Hockey Centre – ice hockey (men competition)
• Gangneung Curling Centre – curling
• Gangneung Oval^[14] – speed skating
• Gangneung Ice Arena – short track speed skating and figure skating

In addition, a stand-alone venue is located on the grounds of Catholic Kwandong University:

• Kwandong Hockey Centre – ice hockey (women competition)

Marketing

Branding

The host city Pyeongchang is marketed as PyeongChang with the letter "C" in uppercase. This is after concerns were raised that foreign visitors to the Games might confuse Pyeongchang for Pyongyang, the capital of neighboring North Korea.^[15]

Choi Moon-Soon, governor of Gangwon province, acknowledges the similarities of the names of the two cities. Choi cited a case of Daniel Olomae Ole Sapit, a Maasai from Kenya who was invited to attend a United Nations conference on biodiversity in Pyeongchang in September 2014 to justify such concerns. Sapit mistakenly flew to Pyongyang, North Korea instead, and was interrogated by suspicious North Korean immigration officers. He was later put in a flight back to Beijing after paying a $500 fine.^[15]

Sports

15 winter sport disciplines, organized as 7 Olympic sports, are scheduled in the 2018 Winter Olympics program. The three skating sports are figure skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. The six skiing sports are Alpine, cross-country skiing, freestyle, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding. The two bobsleigh sports are bobsleigh and skeleton. The other four sports are biathlon, curling, ice hockey, and luge.^[13]

In June 2015, four new disciplines were approved for inclusion in the games and will feature in the Olympic program for the first time in 2018. These four are snowboarding big air, curling mixed doubles, speed skating mass start, and Alpine skiing team. Parallel slalom in snowboarding was dropped to make room for big air.^[16]

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sports discipline.

Participating National Olympic Committees

Calendar

All dates are KST (UTC+9)

• Schedule does not yet include:^[19]
  • Alpine skiing team event
  • Figure skating team event
  • Curling mixed doubles
  • Women's ski jumping
  • Mixed relay biathlon
  • Freestyle skiing half pipe
  • Speed skating mass start
  • Team relay luge
  • Snowboard slopestyle and big air

February		9th Fri	10th Sat	11th Sun	12th Mon	13th Tue	14th Wed	15th Thu	16th Fri	17th Sat	18th Sun	19th Mon	20th Tue	21st Wed	22nd Thu	23rd Fri	24th Sat	25th Sun	??	Events
Ceremonies		OC																CC
Alpine skiing					1	1		1	1		1	1		1	1	1	1		1	11
Biathlon				1		1		2		1	1		1		1		2		1	11
Bobsleigh										●	1	●	1		●	1				3
Cross country skiing			2		2		2			2		1		1		1		1		12
Curling			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1			1	3
Figure skating			●		1	●		1	●		●	1	●		1		EG		1	5
Freestyle skiing			1			1				●	1	●	1	1	1				4	10
Ice hockey			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	●	●	1		2
Luge			●	1	●	1	1												1	4
Nordic combined				1							1		1							3
Short track speed skating				1			1			2				1		3				8
Skeleton								●	2											2
Ski jumping					●	1		●	1			1							1	4
Snowboarding				1	1		1	1								1	1		4	10
Speed skating			1	1	1	1	1	1		1	1		1	1		●	2		2	14
February		9th Fri	10th Sat	11th Sun	12th Mon	13th Tue	14th Wed	15th Thu	16th Fri	17th Sat	18th Sun	19th Mon	20th Tue	21st Wed	22nd Thu	23rd Fri	24th Sat	25th Sun		102

Broadcasting rights

Broadcast rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics in some countries were already sold as part of long-term broadcast rights deals. On 29 June 2015, the IOC announced that Discovery Communications—owner of Eurosport, had acquired exclusive rights to the Olympics from 2018 through 2024 across Europe, excluding Russia, on all platforms. Discovery will sub-license its broadcast rights to local free-to-air networks on a territorial basis. Discovery's rights deal will, initially, not cover France or the United Kingdom, due to pre-existing rights deals with the BBC and France Télévisions that run through the 2020 Games. Unlike previous pan-European deals, such as with the European Broadcasting Union and Sportfive, Discovery will not solely serve as a reseller, and intends to carry coverage on its regional properties, but has committed to sub-licensing at least 100 hours of coverage to free-to-air networks.^[20][21][22]

•  Asia – Dentsu (Rights to be sold to local broadcaster)^[23]
•  Australia – Seven Network^[24]
•  Brazil – Grupo Globo^[25]
•  Canada – CBC/Radio-Canada, Bell Media, Rogers Media^[26]
•  China – CCTV^[27]
•  Europe – Discovery Communications, Eurosport^[28]
•  France – France Télévisions^[29]
•  Japan – Japan Consortium^[30]
•  MENA – beIN Sports^[31]
•  North Korea – SBS^[32]
•  South Korea – SBS^[32]
•  United Kingdom – BBC, Eurosport^[33][34]
•  United States – NBC^[35]

See also

• 2018 Summer Youth Olympics

Notes and references

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2018 Winter Olympics.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

• Pyeongchang 2018 web site
• Pyeongchang 2018 (IOC)

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