The 2018 Winter Olympics brings together athletes from around the globe to compete for medals. The games are being held throughout the month of February in PyeongChang, South Korea.  This is only the second time that an Olympic event was hosted by South Korea.

On February 9^th, the Olympics kicked off with the Opening Ceremony.  This celebration shows the countries and athletes that are competing in this year’s games.  The “big-hitters” were all there, United States, China, Canada, Germany and Russia.  However, there was a change for Team Russia because of the doping scandal that happened back in 2014.  This year the Russians competed under the Olympic flag and were called, Olympic Athletes from Russia.  New to this Olympics was the United Korea team.  This team brought athletes from both North and South Korea together and play under the same flag.

The United States usually dominates in the medal game during the Olympics but this year that is not the case. This year Norway was the medal leader.  However, the United States competed tremendously in snowboarding.  Two stand out gold medal victories came both from 17 year old athletes, Red Girard and Chloe Kim.  These two started their Olympic career off outstanding with first place appearances.  The other gold medal in snowboarding was in halfpipe by Olympic legend Shaun White.  This whole Olympics for White was redemption for Sochi where he didn’t place top 3.  He made a statement this Olympics by retaking his throne as a gold medalist.

This year’s Olympics were for sure an excitement for Team USA. The women’s hockey team got their revenge and took down Canada for the gold medal on the exact same day the US beat the USSR in the Miracle on Ice.  The men’s curling team made history by becoming the first US curling team to medal at the Olympics with their gold medal.  The next Winter Olympics will be in Beijing 2022 and the pressure is on for many athletes to continue to hold their Olympic title.