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With almost only one year to go, I guess it's maybe time to make a proper thread for discussion about the ceremonies. However, it looks like there are some issues surounding the production of the ceremonies, according to this link http://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1003757002 It seems that there were some internal conflicts between Song Seung Hwan, the ceremonies director, and Jeong Gu Ho, art director, which forced the later to resign (apparently there were a lot of creative differences between the two, so its now feared the ceremonies might suffer because of this issue). However, Song assures everything is set up and they're now on the process of picking an Agency which will be in charge of delivering the show. Also, the budget of the ceremonies, according to the link, is 100000000000 Won , which is around $85 million. A very big budget, far above Rio's and in comparison to London. Looks like they want to go all out, but they're now having internal creative conflicts rather than money issues.

The 2016-17 figure skating season officially concludes next week with the World Team Trophy in Tokyo but here's the schedule for the important events in the figure skating calendar for the Olympic season. Grand Prix Circuit Russia October 20-22, 2017 Canada October 27-29, 2017, Venue: Regina, Saskatchewan China November 3-5, 2017 Japan November 10-12, 2017 France November 17-19, 2017 USA November 24-26, 2017, Venue: Lake Placid, New York GP Final Japan December 7-10, 2017, Venue: Nagoya, Japan Challenger Circuit U.S. International FS Salt Lake City, USA September 13-17, 2017 Lombardia Trophy Bergamo, Italy September 14-17, 2017 Autumn Classic International Montreal, Canada September 20-23, 2017 Ondrej Nepela Trophy Bratislava, Slovak Republic September 21-23, 2017 Nebelhorn Trophy Oberstdorf, Germany September 27-30, 2017 (Olympic Qualifier) Finlandia Trophy Espoo, Finland October 6-8, 2017 Minsk-Arena Ice Star Minsk, Belarus October 27-29, 2017 Warsaw Cup Warsaw, Poland November 16-19, 2017 Tallinn Trophy Tallinn, Estonia November 21-26, 2017 Golden Spin of Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia December 6-9, 2017 Important Tournaments Europeans, January 15-21; Moscow Four Continents, January 23-28; Taipei Olympics, February 9-25; PyeongChang World Juniors, March 5-11; Sofia Worlds, March 19-25; Milan

Supposed i should make a thread about it since the Olympic village apparently opened its doors yesterday. 500 athletes have already moved in. It should be added there are two Olympic Villages. One for the snow athletes in Pyeongchang and another one in Gangneung for the ice athletes.

I thought I should make a separate thread about this, considering its starting to gain a lot of momentum at the moment as a great majority of South Koreans are looking with contempt this decision which might marry the reputation of these games. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2018-northkorea-icehockey/plan-for-joint-olympics-team-with-north-gets-icy-reception-in-south-korea-idUSKBN1F50E8 To add more insult to injury, it seems they even forced SK coach and the team players to not even talk to journalists anymore. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2018/01/16/0401000000AEN20180116010500315.html?sns=tw Many players of the Hockey team are also reported to be displeased with the whole sudden decision, working for many years with the hopes of winning gold only for being most likely placed in the bench because of a political statement. The most insulting thing was the PM saying "They weren't going to win anyway" as a justification. Even if that was the case, you just don't say that. It's a big shame the opportunities of many female athletes went into the trash due to this. I initially didn't understood why some conservatives in SK kept accusing Moon and his friends of being closeted North Korea sympathizers, but after this I think i'm starting to understand. This has also affected Moon Jae In reputation. His support has dropped 20 points since November after the whole drama with the Hockey team happened. What's the opinion of the rest of GB about this new drama happening around these games?

Well, we're just 3 days away for the start of the games (even if they technically start on thursday), so I imagined we might as well get started for the traditional Livechat thread to share our thoughts, views, joys and cringes. Even though this time many of us will have to wake up very early to watch the show. The opening ceremony will start at 8:00 PM (Korea's local time). That would be 5:00 AM (Central Standard Time), 6:00 AM (Eastern Standard Time) and 3:00 AM (Pacific Standard Time) in the US, respectively. If you want to know exactly at which hour the Opening begins, you can use this Timezone converter right here. https://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_KR.aspx NBC will be broadcasting the Opening Ceremony live on their website, without commercial ads, for those living in the US. However if you know any other sources where we can watch the ceremony, make sure to share them with the rest of us.

So, Canada apparently unveiled already their apparel for Pyeongchang 2018 some days ago, so I think it's time to open up a thread for the apparels the rest of the delegations will be wearing for the Winter Olympics. http://olympic.ca/2017/10/03/team-canada-and-hudsons-bay-unveil-pyeongchang-2018-collection/ Here's the unveiling of Team Canada apparel. Here's the latest incarnation of Canada iconic red mittens which will be worn next February

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canada-olympic-house-2018-1.4477963

PyeongChang 2018 volunteer application process ends with huge participation 4 October 2016 PyeongChang, October 4 – The PyeongChang 2018 volunteer application process came to a close amid huge participation on September 30. The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) began the volunteer recruitment process on July 1st and received applications worldwide for three months. With POCOG receiving 91,656 applications from 145 countries, up to 22,400 people will be chosen to become volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Volunteers will take on a variety of roles across 7 areas (i.e., Games information, operational support, media, sport, protocol and languages, medical services, technology) in 17 categories. The most popular category was the language services (interpretation) where 8,131 people applied for 490 positions. Delegation services received the second most applicants with 14,978 for 1,030 positions. Female candidates outnumbered male applicants accounting for 78% of all candidates. In addition, 12,547 foreign applicants account for 14% with 2,890 from Russia, 1,345 from China, and 1,158 from the United States. The organizing committee will review all applications and conduct interviews in person at regional volunteer centers throughout the nation from October, 2016 to February, 2017. Language tests will be conducted for positions which require foreign language fluency - i.e., interpretation, protocol services. Successful candidates will go through a series of training sessions which include Games introduction and teamwork building (Mar. – Aug. 2017), leadership education (Sep. – Dec 2017), job specific education (Sep. – Mar. 2018), and on-the-job training (Jan. – Feb. 2018). POCOG President LEE Hee-beom said, “Volunteers will carry out a range of essential tasks, from medical care to language services. Therefore, PyeongChang 2018 depends on the volunteers to help make the Games a success. In order to select applicants who meet the requirements and who will bring passion and enthusiasm to the Games, the recruitment process will be transparent, open, and fair.”

Hi all, we are new here to the Games Bids forums, although we have visited the website for news in the past. I wanted to help some people with transport information seeing it is not readily available. We have been to PyeongChang a few times, and transport was one of our biggest worries. KTX from Incheon will run 16 times a day, 10 carriages, 2 are drivers compartments, 8 for passengers on which at least 2 will be for accredited persons (athletes, media, officials). Each carriage carries 45 passengers and tickets will go on sale in December via Korean Rails website for around Won 50,000 (US$45) each way. The only issue is accredited persons take priority so with some schedules or flights arriving, some trains will have more than the 2 carriages reserved. KTX from Seoul will run 35 times a day, 10 carriages, 2 are drivers compartments, 8 for passengers on which at least 1 will be for accredited persons. Journey time is around 2 hours. PyeongChang 2018 are reviewing the schedule but because the KTX is a separate company, they need to work directly with them on their transport plan. Public Transport plans will be released in December including the network of buses they will use in the province to move everyone. The actual main transport hub is not in Alpensia, but in Jinbu, so those from the coastal zone will need to travel further and then back track to any venues in Alpensia. We have the following Transport Map to assist with anyone for the Games and we are happy to also provide any advice or answer any questions you may have.