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2018 Olympics: Winter Event Locations, TV Schedule, Live Stream and Predictions
February 8, 2018
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will officially kick off on Friday with the opening ceremony ahead of two-and-a-half weeks of the highest-quality sporting action.
2,952 athletes representing 92 different countries will compete in 102 events across 15 sports, including figure skating, skiing and bobsleigh.
Thirteen different venues will play host to the events, eight located in the the mountain resort of Alpensia, where the outdoor athletes will compete, and five in the coastal city of Gangneung, home to the indoor events.
A full list of the venues can be found at PyeongChang2018.com, the official website for the Games.
In the United States, NBC will provide full coverage of the action from Pyeongchang, while the BBC will host the action across its television channels and website for the duration of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Events at the Gangneung Ice Arena will likely be closely tracked as the venue is set to host the short track speed skating and ever-popular figure skating events.
Russia dominated the figure skating at the 2014 Games in Sochi, claiming five of the 15 medals up for grabs, including three golds.
Indeed, the hosts finished the last Winter Olympics atop the medal table having claimed 13 golds, 11 silvers and nine bronze, per ESPN.
However, since the last Games, Russia has been embroiled in a doping scandal that has seen them stripped of 13 medals from Sochi 2014 and banned from the Pyeongchang Games, per Murad Ahmed and Max Seddon of the Financial Times.
Athletes from Russia deemed to be clean will be able to appear under a neutral flag. But in the easiest prediction for the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russia will not be topping the medal table in Pyeongchang.
That obviously then begs the question of which country will be most successful in 2018.
Sports data analysts Gracenote have predicted that Germany will top the medal table, with Norway second and the United States third.
It is in the figure skating events where the absence of Russia will be most keenly felt given their dominance at recent Winter Olympics—they have claimed 14 of the 26 gold medals available in the past six Games.
Per Christine Brennan of USA Today, the United States have a potential gold banker in figure skating at the 2018 Winter Games in the shape of Nathan Chen.
He will face significant competition from Japan's defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, but the 18-year-old is arguably Team USA's best medal hope for Pyeongchang 2018.