The 2018 Winter Olympics
The upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with the Opening Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony held on February 9 and 25, respectively. Selected on July 6, 2011, Pyeongchang emerged as the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics after gaining 63 votes.
This is not the first time a South Korean city will host the Olympics, as Seoul hosted the Summer in 1988. 8,005 individuals bearing the traditional Olympic torch began their journey on October 24, 2017, which will end when the Olympic Opening Ceremony begins. There will be 102 events in 15 sports.
The 2018 Olympics have already been faced with numerous prominent controversies plaguing the games; for example, the National Hockey League has refused to provide accommodations for NHL players competing in the Olympics’ hockey events. Furthermore, the Russian Olympic Team has been prohibited from participating in the Games for a prominent doping scandal, although Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in the Games under the Olympic flag should they prove they they have not taken steroids.
On January 9th, the nation of North Korea, which is technically at war with South Korea and is notably embroiled in a diplomatic crisis with the United States because of its nuclear weapons program, has officially announced that they will be sending athletes to the Olympic Games.
Both Korean governments hope to use the event to further thaw inter-Korean relations and some have stated that the move is in line with the values of the Olympics. However, some have posed concerns that the defection of a North Korean athlete (as has thus far mostly been avoided by North Koreans but has frequently occurred in other dictatorships such as Eritrea), such as Hong Hyun-ik, senior fellow at a major Seoul-based think tank.
In short, while the 2018 Olympic Games will serve alongside its predecessors as a celebration of international cooperation and athletic ability, it will also serve as a momentous diplomatic event and continue to be rife with geopolitical and ethical controversies; in essence, something that is a true spectacle.
