Where Are The 2018 Winter Olympics? An Early Look At The Olympics That Follow Rio 2016

Less than 18 months after the conclusion of the 2016 Rio Olympics, the next Games will be ready to get underway. The 2018 Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on Feb. 9, 2018 and conclude 16 days later in PyeongChang, South Korea.

PyeongChang beat out Munich, Germany, and Annecy, France, for the honor, officially becoming the host city more than five years ago. By winning the bid, South Korea became the eighth country to host both the Winter and Summer Olympics.

South Korea last hosted the Olympics in 1988 when the Summer Games were played in Seoul. PyeongChang will be the second Asian City to host the Winter Games, which were played in Japan in 1972 and 1998.

The last Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia, where the host nation led the way with 13 gold medals and 33 medals in total. South Korea placed 13th with three golds, and the nation finished with eight medals overall.

Much of the discussion in the next year and a half regarding the upcoming Winter Olympics might be regarding the conditions in PyeongChang, rather than the Games themselves. Rio has been criticized for being unprepared to host the event, and some athletes even skipped the Games because of the Zika virus. The phrase “Sochi Problems” became synonymous with the 2014 Winter Olympics as pictures of unfinished construction and subpar housing accommodations circulated throughout the internet.

The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, which hosted the 2008 Summer Games.