The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver, Korean: 제23회 동계 올림픽, translit. Je-isipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpik) and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, is an international multi-sport event currently taking place from 9 to 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, with opening rounds in certain events being held on the eve of the opening ceremony, 8 February 2018. Pyeongchang was selected as the host city in July 2011, during the 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 feature 102 events in fifteen sports disciplines, including the addition of big air snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic programme. 2,952 athletes from 92 National Olympic Committees are slated to compete, including the debut of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.
The lead-up to these Games were threatened by the ongoing tensions between South Korea and neighbouring North Korea, which led to several countries threatening to skip these Olympics if the security of their delegations were not guaranteed. In January 2018, the two countries agreed to march together during the opening ceremony, and to field a unified women's hockey team. These moves were met with opposition by South Korean critics, who believed that the country was using the Games as a platform for pro-North Korean sentiment. Russia's participation in these Olympics has also been impacted by the scandal surrounding the programme of state-sponsored doping; the International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian Olympic Committee, and barred its athletes from participating under the Russian flag as well as banned most of its athletes outright. Athletes whitelisted by the IOC are allowed to compete under the title "Olympic Athletes from Russia".
