2018 Winter Olympics

XXIII Olympic Winter Games

Host city	Pyeongchang, South Korea
Motto	Passion. Connected. Korean: 하나된 열정. (Hanaduen Yeoljeong)
Nations participating	90 (estimated)
Events	102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
Opening ceremony	9 February (6 months from now)
Closing ceremony	25 February
Stadium	Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium
Winter:
<  Sochi 2014 Beijing 2022  >
Summer:
<  Rio de Janeiro 2016 Tokyo 2020  >

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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 XXIIIeme Jeux olympiques d'hiver; Hangul: 평창 동계 올림픽; RR: Pyeongchang Donggye Ollimpik), and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018,^[1] [pʰjʌŋ.tɕʰaŋ] is a major international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 9 to 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

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. Pyeongchang won its bid on the first round of voting, receiving more votes than both Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.

The 2018 Olympics will be the second Olympic Games held in South Korea, after the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, and will be South Korea's first Winter Games. Pyeongchang will be the third Asian city to host the Winter Games after Sapporo, Japan (1972), and Nagano, Japan (1998).^[2]

Bidding

Pyeongchang bid to host both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympic Games but lost in the final rounds of voting by three and four votes respectively. Pyeongchang won its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in the first round of voting, receiving 63 of the 95 votes cast, giving it the majority required to be elected host city.

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

Forty-eight votes were needed for selection.

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

Tickets

The ticket prices for the 2018 Winter Olympics were announced in April 2016 and went on sale in October 2016, ranging from ₩20,000 approx. $18 to 900,000 ($803). Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies will range from ₩220,000 ($196) to ₩1.5 million ($1,338). The exact prices were determined through market research; around 50% of the tickets are due to cost about ₩80,000 ($71) or less, and tickets in sports that are relatively unknown in the region, such as biathlon and luge, will be made cheaper in order to encourage attendance. By contrast, figure skating and the Men's hockey gold medal game carry the most expensive tickets of the Games.^[3]

Preparations

On 5 August 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the formation of the Pyeongchang 2018 Coordination Commission.^[4][5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7][8] In June 2012, construction began on a high-speed rail line that will connect Pyeongchang to Seoul.^[9]

Olympic venues 2018

The International Paralympic Committee met with the Pyeongchang 2018 organizing committee for an orientation in July 2012.^[10] Then-IOC President Jacques Rogge visited Pyeongchang for the first time in February 2013.^[11]

On 27 June 2014 the PyeongChang Olympic Committee announced their mascot selection contest.^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[14][15]

• Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium – opening and closing ceremonies^[16]
• 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^[16] – 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)

Sports

The 2018 Winter Olympics will feature 102 events in 15 sports. Four new disciplines in existing sports will be introduced in Pyeongchang, including big air snowboarding (which will replace the parallel slalom), mixed doubles curling, mass start speed skating, and mixed team alpine skiing.^[17]

For the first time since 1998, the National Hockey League will not provide accommodations (including a break in the season for all teams during the Olympics) to allow its players to participate in the Men's ice hockey tournament. The NHL's decision stemmed from demands for the IOC to cover the cost of insuring the NHL players that participate in the Games. Although it did pay to insure NHL players in Sochi, the IOC was unwilling to do so for Pyeongchang, and was concerned that the NHL's demand could set a precedent for other professional sports bodies to follow in the future. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman added that the IOC didn't allow the NHL to promote the involvement of its players in the Olympics.^[18][19][20] The NHL has yet to announce if it will implement any specific measures to penalize players who participate in the Olympics.^[21]

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

Participating National Olympic Committees

• A total of 82 nations have qualified at least one athlete so far.
• Eritrea, Kosovo, and Malaysia are scheduled to make their Winter Olympics debut if they decide to participate.
• If North Korea qualifies for the Games, they will be allowed to cross the DMZ into South Korea.^[22]
• Russia's status remains unclear due to the state-sponsored doping program scandal.^[23]

Calendar

All dates are KST (UTC+9)

February		8th Thu	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	N/A
Alpine skiing					1	1	1	1	1		1	1			1	1	1	1		11
Biathlon				1	1	2		1	1		1	1		1		1	1			11
Bobsleigh												●	1	●	1			●	1	3
Cross country skiing				1	1		2		1	1	1	1			2			1	1	12
Curling		●	●	●	●	●	1	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	3
Figure skating			●		●	1		●	1	●	1		●	1	●		1		EG	5
Freestyle skiing			●		1	1			●	1	1	2	●	1	1	1	1			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									●	1	1									2
Ski jumping		●		1		1				●	1		1							4
Snowboarding				●	1	1	1	1	1	1			●		●	●	1	3		10
Speed skating				1	1	1	1	1	1	1		1	1		2		1	2		14
Total events				5	7	8	8	6	7	5	9	6	3	5	7	8	6	8	4	102
Cumulative total				5	12	20	28	34	41	46	55	61	64	69	76	84	90	98	102
February		8th Thu	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 events

Marketing

Branding

The emblem for the Games was unveiled on 3 May 2013. It is a stylized representation of the hangul letters ㅍ p and ㅊ ch, being the initial sounds of 평창 Pyeongchang. Additionally the left symbol is said to represent the Korean philosophical triad of heaven, earth and humanity (Korean: 천지인 cheon-ji-in), and the right symbol to represent a crystal of ice.^[28]

The name of the host city, Pyeongchang, has been intentionally styled in CamelCase as "PyeongChang" on the emblem and in official materials, rather than "Pyeongchang". This has been done to alleviate potential confusion with Pyongyang, the similarly-named capital of neighbouring North Korea. Gangwon Governor Choi Moon-soon cited a 2014 incident where a representative from Kenya, en route to a United Nations biodiversity conference in Pyeongchang, was detained by local immigration officers after accidentally flying to Pyongyang instead.^[1]

The official pictograms for 24 sports across 15 disciplines were revealed in January 2017 and are designed using the Korean alphabet as an inspiration.^[29]

Mascots

Soohorang (수호랑), a white tiger, and Bandabi (반다비), an Asiatic black bear, were announced as the official mascots of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Broadcasting rights

Broadcast rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics in some countries were already sold as part of long-term broadcast rights deals, including the Games' local rightsholder SBS—who extended its rights to the Olympics through 2024 in July 2011.^[30]

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 due to pre-existing rights deals with 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..^[31][32][33] In the United Kingdom, Discovery will hold exclusive pay television rights under license from the BBC, in return for the BBC sub-licensing the free-to-air rights to the 2022 and 2024 Olympics from Discovery.^[34]

In the United States, the Games will once again be broadcast by NBC under a long-term contract; it will also be NBC's first Olympics without long-time host Bob Costas, who announced his retirement from the role in favour of Mike Tirico on 7 February 2017.^[35][36] On 28 March 2017, NBC also announced that it would air most primetime coverage simultaneously in all time zones, rather than tape-delayed for the west coast.^[37]

See also

• 2018 Winter Paralympics
• 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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