On Thurs., Feb. 8, the Winter Olympics will officially begin, with he first two events being curling and ski jumping. The opening ceremony will be held the following day.

This year they will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. 94 teams across 92 nations entered at least one athlete into the games. This is the first winter games that South Korea is hosting since the 1998 summer games.

Three Nigerian women will be making history this year at the games. The women make up the first African team ever to compete in the sport of bobsled. They will also be the first Nigerians to compete at the Winter Olympics.

There are four new events that are being added to this years line up. The events are curling mixed doubles, speed skating mass start, alpine skiing team event and snowboard big air.

Curling mixed doubles is where two players compose one team that play with six stones instead of the usual eight. Then, speed skating mass start where all players start the sixteen laps at the same time with four opportunities to score points. The alpine skiing team event has a mixed team of two men and two women competing against against three other teams. The last new event, snowboard big air, starts the snowboarders riding down a steep ramp before launching off and performing different tricks. This event is also featured in the X Games.

Freshman Tanner Macdonald enjoys watching both the summer and winter Olympics every year that they are on.

“They’re really cool and it’s fun to see countries get together to compete as well as learning about everyone’s cultures,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald enjoys watching almost all of the events, but his favorites are ice skating, ski jumping, and bob sledding.

If he could play any of the sports he would want to compete in bobsledding, a sport that’s always seemed like a lot of fun to him. He’s looking forward to when they air this year.

The Olympic games do more than just having different countries compete against each other. The games are a unique way way for various countries to interact with eachother in ways they normally would not.

Freshman Christine Sylvest believes that the Olympics unite people from all around the world as they bond over all the sports.

“They help us learn how to work together, and be good sports to people that we don’t or do like,” Slyvester said.

The Winter Olympics are a highly anticipated event that people all around the world are eager to watch.