The 2018 Winter Olympics Games have officially commenced at Pyeongchang in South Korea. This is the 23rd edition of the Olympic Winter Games.
- The 2018 Winter Olympics Games are officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games or PyeongChang 2018.
- PyeongChang was selected as the host country in July 2011 during he 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa.
- It marks the first time that South Korea has hosted the Winter Olympics, and the second Olympics held in the country, the first being the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
- These Games will be held from 9-25 February 2018 featuring 102 events in 15 sports.
- A total of 2,952 athletes from 92 National Olympic Committees are slated to compete, including the debut of countries like Ecuador, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.
About Winter Olympics
- The Olympic Winter Games is a major international sporting event held once every four years, for sports practised on snow and ice.
- The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, was held in Chamonix, France.
- Olympic games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games, which were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896.
- The IOC is the governing body of the Olympic Movement.
- The Games were held every four years from 1924 to 1936, interrupted in 1940 and 1944 by World War II, and resumed in 1948.
- Until 1992 the winter and Summer Olympic Games were held in the same years. But in 1986 a decision was taken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to place the Summer and Winter Games on separate four-year cycles in alternating even-numbered years.
- The original five sports in the event were bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, Nordic skiing (consisting of the disciplines military patrol, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping), and skating (consisting of the disciplines figure skating and speed skating).
- Some of the sports disciplines added were Alpine skiing, luge, short track speed skating, freestyle skiing, skeleton, and snowboarding, which have earned a permanent spot on the Olympic programme.
- The Winter Olympics has been hosted on three continents by eleven different countries.
- The IOC has selected Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Beijing, China, to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
List of hosts for Winter Olympics Games
| S.No. |
Host |
Year |
| 1. |
USA |
1932, 1960, 1980, 2002 |
| 2. |
France |
1924, 1968, 1992 |
| 3. |
Austria |
1964, 1976 |
| 4. |
Canada |
1988, 2010 |
| 5. |
Japan |
1972, 1998 |
| 6. |
Italy |
1956, 2006 |
| 7. |
Norway |
1952, 1994 |
| 8. |
Switzerland |
1928, 1948 |
| 9. |
Germany |
1936 |
| 10. |
Yugoslavia |
1984 |
| 11. |
Russia |
2014 |
