By Nikolay Stulo: Belarus has won 24 Olympic licenses for the Winter Olympics in South Korea and this is not the final figure. It is expected that based to the results of the qualifying competitions, Belarus will be able to send 28 athletes to six types of sports, and the entire Belarusian delegation in PyeongChang will be about 60 people.
The TV channels of Belteleradiocompany will broadcast competitions in biathlon, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, ski jumping, and other disciplines. Also, the TV News Agency is launching a new project – The Olympic Visa. It is an encyclopedic versatile project dedicated to everything that has to do with the Winter Olympics and PyeongChang itself.
This time, medals of the Korean Olympics will be the heaviest in the history of modern Games. The gold medal weighs 586 grams, the silver weighs 580 grams, and the bronze is 493 grams. Hangul – the Korean writing system – was used in the design as the basis of the local culture. Diagonal lines on the frontline embody the history of the Games, and on the reverse side, the sports discipline is depicted. In total, from 9 to 25 February 2018, athletes will compete for 99 sets of awards in 15 sports.
PyeongChang is situated in the mountains, 180 kilometers from Seoul, the capital of South Korea. The city is located at an altitude of 600 meters above the sea level and is known primarily as a ski resort around which other Olympic facilities were built.
PyeongChang is now a multifunctional ski resort which includes Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre, Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre, Alpensia Biathlon Centre, Yongpyong Alpine Centre, Gangneung Hockey Centre, Phoenix Snow Park, and the recently built Olympic Sliding Centre.
The two mascots of the 2018 Winter Olympics are the white tiger Soohorang and the Asiatic black bear Bandabi. The white tiger has long been considered Korea’s guardian animal, and it symbolises protection offered to the athletes, spectators, and other participants in the 2018 Games. The Asiatic black bear symbolises strong willpower and courage in the Korean folklore.
Traditionally, the Olympic Games are also a time for political goodwill and peace-making. Considering the tense situation on the peninsula, the UN General Assembly called on the two countries to observe a truce for the 2018 Olympic Games. The Olympic Truce is expected to hold seven days before the start of the Games and to continue for another week after the Games are over.
All in all, 84 countries will be represented at the 2018 Olympic Games. For the first time in the history of the Winter Games, two new states will take part – Eritrea and Kosovo.
