The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics is the 23rd Winter Olympic Games to take place since it began in 1924 at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix and Haute-Savoie, France.
This year‘s games kick off Friday and run until the 25th, passing the baton to the Paralympics in March. Get to know the PyeongChang Olympics better through the numbers below.
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Hedvig Wessel of Norway in action during the Women`s Moguls qualification at the Phoenix Snow Park during the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 09 February 2018. (Yonhap) |
1 = The PyeongChang Olympics is the first Winter Olympic Games to take place in Korea. However, this is the second time the Olympic Games have been hosted in Korea, the first was in 1988 when Seoul held the 24th Summer Olympic Games. In all of Asia, Korea is the second country to host the Winter Games, following Japan’s Sapporo Olympics in 1972 and Nagano Olympics in 1998.
4 = Korean athletes are aspiring to come in fourth place overall this year. With eight gold medals and a combined total of 20 medals, Korea can place fourth. In the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, Korea came fifth with a total of 14 medals which included six gold, six silver and two bronze.
3 = Korea has medals in three different Winter Games events. Over the years, Korea has secured 42 medals in short track speedskating, nine in speedskating and two in figure skating.
22 = The number of athletes sent by North Korea. The 22 North Korean Olympic stars will participate in five disciplines. Twelve are in the unified women‘s ice hockey team, two will participate in the figure skating pair event, three each for alpine skiing and cross country skiing and two for short track speedskating.
102 = The total number of gold medals in store for the athletes at this Winter Olympics. The PyeongChang Olympics holds the record number of 102 medal events. The number of participants in this year’s event is the biggest so far, with 2,925 athletes from 92 countries vying for the medals. For the events on snow, there are 61 medals at stake, for the games on ice there are 32 and there are nine for sledding.
118= The number of gold medals Norway has received. Norway placed first in 2014 Sochi Olympics with a total of 26 medals, including eleven gold, five silver and 10 bronze. Following Norway in the rankings is the US, with 96 gold under its name. The US is seeking to go over the 100th gold medal mark with the games in PyeongChang.
169 = From Russia comes 169 athletes for the PyeongChang Olympics. Russia is banned due to the doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The athletes coming from Russia this year are to compete under the name OAR, which is acronym for Olympic Athlete from Russia. Should these players receive a medal, the Olympic rings flag will fly instead of the Russian flag.
By Lim Jeong-yeo (
kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)
