The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Pyeongchang 2018, was a major multi-sport eventheld between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, with the opening rounds for certain events held on the eve of the opening ceremony, 8 February 2018. 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. And it's the first time since 1998 that the Winter Olympics are held in Asia. In June 2012, construction began on a high-speed rail line that is to connect Pyeongchang to Seoul.
The Winter Olympics held from 8 to 25 February 2018. The games feature 102 events in fifteen sports, including the addition of big air snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic program. A total of 2,952 athletes from 92 National Olympic Committees participated. Such countries as Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore featured for the first time.
The Winter Olympic Games concluded on 25 February 2018. Kazakhstan represented 46 sportsmen. In figure skating: Denis Ten, Aiza Mambekova and ElizabetTursynbayeva were qualified.
Yuliya Galysheva won bronze medal for freestyle skiing. The Kazakh biathlon team of Galina Vishnevskaya, Darya Klimina, Alina Raikova, and Olga Poltoranina finished 14th in the Women's 4x6km Relay. According to the ISU Special Olympic Qualification Rankings, Kazakhstan qualified 3 men and 2 women in short track speed skating.
Norway dominated the Games with 39 total medals, including 14 golds. Norway and Germany sat on top of the leaderboard for the majority of the Games’ two weeks of events, and both earned historic medals and commanded the competition. The U.S. had a number of surprising wins and defeats at the Games. Sportsmen from the U.S won total 9 gold medals, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals. Alina Zagitova from Russia won the Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating, edging out her countrywoman, Evgenia Medvedeva. The two skaters tied in the free skate, but Zagitova’s small edge in the short program made the difference. And the host country South Korea won 5 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals.
The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics took place at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, on February 25, 2018.
The next host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be Beijing. We'll wait and hope that Kazakhstani athletes bring many Olympic medals to our country!
Голубев Денис, ОМК
