Image courtesy of olympic.org

With the opening ceremony on February ninth drawing closer, all eyes are on PyeongChang, South Korea, as the city prepares to host the 23rd Winter Olympics. NBC will broadcast the games live on TV and online.

The games are in South Korea, but North Korea has drawn attention in the headlines as tensions increase between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. Although they don’t expect to use it, The British Olympic Association said last month that it has an evacuation plan and The U.S. Olympic Committee remains in close contact with the State Department.

In an article for USA Today, USOC vice president of sport performance Kelly Skinner stated, “Every Games environment brings about unique challenges, and we have some tremendous partners in the State Department that can help us prepare. Team USA’s preparations continue in earnest. We will make sure that the athletes and the staff are safe when we’re in Korea”.

PyeongChang is about 60 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. In reference to a CNN article, the PyeongChang resort has changed its name for the Games, Capitalizing the C for the first time to avoid any possible confusion with North Korea’s capital Pyongyang.

Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988, making the 2018 Winter Olympics the second Olympic Games held in South Korea. The Games are just the beginning of a series of prestigious sporting events to be held in Asia over the next four years: Tokyo is hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics and Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Competition and non-competition venues have been completed, including a high-speed rail connecting PyeongChang to Incheon Airport in Seoul, construction costs estimated at $3.7 billion. The 80 mile journey by train will take about 90 minutes. Another one of the six new venues built for the Games is a $78 million stadium with a 50,000 capacity; the structure will host the opening and closing ceremonies.

Athletes will compete for a record 102 gold medals in 15 disciplines. Four events will be making their Winter Olympic Debuts, including Big Air Snowboarding: competitors performing tricks after launching from huge jumps. The event is said to give the Games a youthful vibe. Other classic events include ski jumping, cross-country skiing, figure skating, and speed skating.

According to the official Olympic website, the vision for the 2018 games is to offer the Olympic Movement and the winter sports world New Horizons: a legacy of new growth and potential that has never been seen. The unique stage on which the world’s best athletes can achieve superior performances is said to be one of the most compact in Olympic history. The combination of PyeongChang’s strategic position in Asia and its access to a young and rapidly growing youth market will without a doubt expose new generations of potential athletes to the power and excitement of winter sport.

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