PyeongChang_2018_07

Skier in mountains, prepared piste and sunny day

The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (Korean: 제23회 동계 올림픽, translit. Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpik) and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, with the opening rounds for certain events held on 8 February 2018, the eve of the opening ceremony.


Pyeongchang was elected as the host city in July 2011, during the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa. This was the first time that South Korea had hosted the Winter Olympics and the second Olympics held in the country overall, after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. It was the third time that an East Asian country had hosted the Winter Games, after Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998), both in Japan. It was also the first of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the other two being the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.



The Games featured 102 events over fifteen disciplines in seven 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 NOCs competed, including the debuts of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore. After a state-sponsored doping program was exposed following the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended, and selected athletes were allowed to compete neutrally under the IOC designation of "Olympic Athletes from Russia". Despite tense relations, North Korea agreed to participate in the Games, enter with South Korea during the opening ceremony as a unified Korea, and field a unified team in women's ice hockey.



Norway led the total medal tally with 39, followed by Germany's 31 and Canada's 29. Germany and Norway were tied for the most gold medals won; both won fourteen golds. Host nation South Korea won seventeen medals, their highest medal haul at a Winter Olympics, five of which were gold.