PyeongChang_2018_05

The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (Korean: 제23회 동계 올림픽, translit. Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpik), officially stylized and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, is an international winter multi-sport event currently being held from 9 to 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, with the opening rounds for certain events held on the eve of the opening ceremony—8 February 2018. Pyeongchang was elected as the host in July 2011, during the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa. It marks the first time South Korea has hosted the Winter Olympics, and the second Olympics in the country overall after the 1988 Summer Olympics in the nation's capital, Seoul. It also marks the third time East Asia has hosted the Winter Games, after Sapporo, Japan (1972), and Nagano, Japan (1998), and the sixth overall Olympic Games held in East Asia. It is the first of three consecutive Olympic Games scheduled to be held in East Asia, preceding Tokyo 2020 (Summer) and Beijing 2022 (Winter).



The games feature 102 events in fifteen sports, with the addition of "big air" snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic programme. 2,914 athletes from 92 National Olympic Committees are expected to compete, including the debuts of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.



The lead-up to these Games was affected by the ongoing tensions between South Korea and North Korea, and the ongoing 2017–18 missile crisis. These led to security concerns, with several countries threatening to skip the games if their safety was not ensured. In January 2018, after their first high-level talks in over two years, North Korea agreed to participate in the Games along with South Korea. The countries also agreed to march together, as a united "Korea", during the opening ceremony, and to field a unified women's ice hockey team.