Watch winter olympic 2018 Speed Skating Live TV>>>>
The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea are right around the corner! That means it's time to watch sports you might not have seen in four years. To help you feel at least a little more informed—either to impress your friends or fake your way through a conversation with an actual expert—SI will be providing rookie's guides to each of the 15 sports. These will be published daily, Monday through Friday, from December 4-22. Speed skating is one of the easiest Winter Olympic sports to understand because of its parallels to track and field, with competitors making their way around a track as fast as possible. Here's everything you need to know (and more) about following speed skating at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.There are 14 speed speed skating events. Both men and women compete in the 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m, mass start and team pursuit. The women also compete over 3000m and the men race 10,000m. During most races, skaters race counterclockwise, in pairs, against the clock, on a 400-meter oval (just like an outdoor track!). Skaters trade lanes every lap in order to equalize their respective distances covered. After they race against the clock, their time is converted into a point system, which takes into account their performance over a given distance. The skating order is determined by a draw and skaters are placed into four groups based on their individual rankings and results from World Cup races. A random draw designates the lanes, inner or outer, and the starting order for each group. During team pursuit races, two teams of three skaters race to get all three skaters across the finish line.One of the more interesting aspects of speed skating at the upcoming Olympics is the addition of the 16-lap mass start. A maximum field of 24 skaters takes off at the same time and the winner is determined by “sprint points.” The scoring system awards those who cross the first, second and third skaters during three intermediate sprints. After the last sprint, the first, second and third skaters to cross the finish line will gain enough points to allow for the first three across the line to be the medalists in the event. The rest of the field are ranked by the sprint points accumulated during the race and then their order of finish. The Olympics have only featured a mass start race one other time, back in 1932.How is it different from short track speed skating?
As you can gather from the name, the main difference is the track length. A short track is typically 111.12 meters. Because of the size, there are some tweaks in the blades, equipment, strategy and technique used by skaters to manage the corners. Long track speed skating events typically have one round per distance. The only exception is the men’s and women’s 500 meters, which will take the combined times of two races. Who are the favorites? Official favorites won't be known until the each country's qualifiers and rosters are decided in the coming weeks. You can count on the Netherlands to put on a show. The country holds the record for the most Olympic medals won in history with 105. Thirty-five of those are gold, which is also a record. They won 23 medals in speed skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The Dutch have finished atop the medal table or tied for the most medals at the last five Winter Games. The United States is looking to rebound after leaving Sochi with no medals. How did the sport come to be? The sport has its roots as a method of transportation across frozen lakes and rivers in Scandinavia and the Netherlands in the 17th century. The Dutch eventually adopted speed skating as their national sport and that partly explains why it remains a powerhouse on the global championship level. The first world championship was held in 1989 and featured the the Netherlands (hosting), Russia, England and the United States. Speed skating debuted in the 1924 Olympics in Chamonix. Women’s competition was added in 1932 as a demonstration sport and then included in the Olympics for the 1960 Games. How do you qualify? The U.S. Olympic team will be determined after the Olympic Trials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from January 2-7. Up to three athletes in each event can go to PyeongChang. A Pittsburgh native speed skater is heading to the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. Twenty-two-year-old John-Henry Krueger, originally from Peters Township, qualified during Friday night’s Olympic team trials. He is the first member of the men’s Olympic U.S. Speedskating short track team. Krueger posted a photo on Instagram on Friday night, saying, “Tonight I accomplished one of my two most important goals as an athlete. Tonight I became an Olympian.”Tonight I accomplished one of my two most important goals as an athlete. Tonight I became an Olympian. There are so many people to thank since I have encountered so many in my skating career. But the ones who deserve the most recognition is my family. I have not seen any other family support and fight through so many adversities for so long. I can with complete confidence say that accomplishing this dream of mine would not be possible without them.Speed skater Lee Sang-hwa, who will compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, has been given a special collection from sports marketing company WAGTI.
Presented at an art gallery in Seoul, the collection features 24 white porcelain moon jars representing disciplines in the Winter Olympics.This is copyrighted material owned by Digital Chosun Inc. No part of it may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.Crews at the Pettit National Ice Center are preparing the venue to host its first speed skating Olympic trials in 20 years.
The Pettit Center has undergone a number of updates and renovations over the past year to be able to host the event. New lighting, the heating system, refrigeration system, but it reads a fevered pitch here starting today with moving boards and pads and those things but we’ve got a lot of help,” said Pettit National Ice Center Executive Director Randy Dean. With just five days until the trials, workers are busy making sure everything is in order to host more than 1200 fans a night. The last time the Pettit Center hosted the event was in 1998. Long-track Olympic speed skating trials are normally held in Utah, but the conditions in the Milwaukee area made it a perfect fit to replicate what skaters will find at the 2018 Winter Olympics. “We are at sea level and that’s where Pyeongchang, the venue there for the games is going to be at sea level,” said Dean. Starting on Tuesday, Jan. 2, fans will enter the facility from an outdoor tent leading them to the indoor bleachers where they will get their first look at around 20 soon-to-be Olympians. “About ten on each side, men and women will qualify for the games so we’re excited about that so hopefully we can launch them onto the podium,” said Dean. Tickets for Friday and Saturday night sessions are already sold out, but Dean said there’s still plenty of tickets for the other four nights. General admission is $15. The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are only 50 days away, and Korea has high hopes of achieving its best result ever. The host country aims to finish fourth by winning eight gold, four silver, and eight bronze medals. Its best performance at a Winter Olympics to date was in Vancouver in 2010, finishing fifth with six gold, six silver and two bronze medals. Korea finished 13th overall in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi with three gold, three silver and two bronze medals. Korea's strongest discipline is short track speed skating, which accounts for 42 of its 53 cumulative winter Olympic medals. Choi Min-jeong on the women's team is a leading hopeful with a high chance of winning multiple medals. What sets her apart from other Korean short trackers is that she ranks with the world's top rivals in the 500-m sprint as well as in mid- and long-distance races. Shim Suk-hee, who won one gold, one silver and one bronze at Sochi, will likely compete with Choi for most medals. The men's short-track team, which went medalless at Sochi, is desperately waiting for a chance to redeem themselves at home. This is copyrighted material owned by Digital Chosun Inc. No part of it may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission.In speed skating, Korea has high hopes for Lee Seung-hoon, who won a gold in the men's 10,000 m and silver in the 5,000 m at Vancouver and a silver in team pursuit at Sochi. He now aims to win gold in mass start, which makes its Olympic debut at Pyeongchang. Kim Bo-reum is considered to be a medal contender in women's mass start. Lee Sang-hwa, two-time Olympic champion in women's 500-m speed skating, will have a tough time competing with Nao Kodaira of Japan, who has been absolutely dominating the discipline in recent seasons.
Outside the skating arena, Yun Sung-bin is currently world No. 1 in men's skeleton. Alpine snowboarder Lee Sang-ho is looking for Korea's first ever medal on snow in parallel giant slalom, and the women's curling team and two-man bobsleigh team also have a chance at an Olympic medal. This is copyrighted material owned by Digital Chosun Inc. No part of it may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. A virtually unknown region 31 miles south of the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea is preparing to take its turn at the Olympic merry-go-round.The 2018 Winter Games are scheduled to kick off Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in the backdrop of drug-cheating scandals, a lack of interest at home, and the existential threat of a bellicose neighbor to the north.Organizers have addressed these subjects gingerly, but they also have worked tirelessly in the background to ensure that the first of three consecutive Olympics in Asia is a success.They have been on the ground in Sochi and Rio de Janeiro, the previous two Olympic Games that left behind decaying facilities that cost millions to build — the kind of bad optics that has led to skepticism about playing host to the Olympics.They promise it will not happen in Gangwon Province long after the tent stakes are pulled.“The venues have been designed as much around what happens after the games as during” them, Pyeongchang Olympic Organizing Committee president Lee Hee-beom told this news organization. South Koreans might have a strong legacy plan, but alas, Sochi and Rio organizers made similar promises ahead of their Olympics in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Still, Lee, a former minister of trade, industry and energy, is determined to transform this mountainous area east of Seoul into an Asian winter sports hub. Korean organizers say their budget is $12.6 billion, a modest sum compared with Sochi’s spending spree of $51 billion. The Koreans will have 17 days in February to spread the magic dust in Asia, where the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo and 2022 Winter Games in Beijing are next on the docket.But before they can get to the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium there is much to consider. Like how to pronounce the name of the host city of the XXIII Winter Games. According to one Korean YouTube video, it’s “PEE-ong-tan.” Another goes with “Pyung-CHUNG” whereas NBC plans to pronounce it “Pyeong-chang.”As long as they do not get it confused with the North Korean capital of Pyongyang (pyeon-yung), everything should be OK. But organizers have plenty of other obstacles to keep them occupied anyway. How to sell winter sports to your people?“One of the biggest challenges has been to raise the excitement levels and educate people on winter sports — many of which are new to most in Korea,” Lee said of a citizenry that follows primarily soccer, baseball and golf. Figure skating, speedskating and short track speedskating and the ice hockey finals have attracted strong interest. But ticket sales for the usually popular sliding sports of bobsled, luge and skeleton are off as well as those for the more obscure disciplines such as biathlon and nordic skiing.
Then again, biathlon, curling and cross-country skiing have been an acquired taste for almost everyone outside of the Great Frozen North of Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. It is one reason why IOC officials started loading up the flagging Winter Olympics with X Games events two decades ago.But Lee remains forever the optimist, saying Koreans are “last-minute buyers.”How to attract visitors to a potential war zone?We would call it the elephant in the room, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might fail to grasp the meaning and consider it a personal affront. Some Olympic fans have been scared of committing to travel to these games because of the rhetoric flying between Kim and President Donald Trump. Not to mention all those missiles the North Koreans have launched in the past year.“South Koreans have been living under such tense conditions for more than 60 years and our daily life continues without disruption,” Lee said. “While we understand the concerns that people have, the IOC, national Olympic committees, international federations and athletes have been giving their full support.”Well, not exactly. Earlier this year tensions between Pyongyang and Washington increased to the point that Austrian and French sports officials publicly worried about sending delegations to Korea.Such frank talk did not encourage tourists to plan vacations around the Olympics located in a province that is split between South and North Korea.In an effort to allay fears, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has championed the idea of North Korean athletes competing in Pyeongchang. Moon wants the Winter Olympics to be the engine to create better cooperation between the neighbors.But North Korea already missed an October deadline to officially enter Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik, who qualified in pairs figure skating. North Koreans also have the potential to qualify athletes in short track speedskating and nordic combined.Lee sidestepped a question addressing evacuation plans in the face of North Korean aggression during the Olympics.“The country has very strong national safety and security measures in place to ensure that Korea is as safe as it can be during the games,” he said.How to deal with the Russia ban?The Russian situation could cast a shadow over the Winter Games through the opening ceremony as Olympic drug testers determine which individual athletes are eligible and then whether those cleared decide to compete under a neutral flag.Although President Vladimir Putin has rejected the idea of a Russian boycott, the specter of losing some of the world’s best athletes will not help ticket sales. Two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva told reporters it was too early for her to decide whether to compete in figure skating, in which she is the gold-medal favorite. But Medvedeva also told an International Olympic Committee panel that she could not accept an option of performing as a neutral athlete.The decision to ban the Russian delegation struck a nerve with Lee, who told South Korean radio he did not expect IOC officials to go to such an extreme to punish a country for government-sponsored drug cheating that included manipulating specimens at the Sochi Games.Before disqualification over drug violations, Russia led the world with 33 medals at the Sochi Games, including 14 gold.And now Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has insisted that the country will never apologize for a government-sponsored drug program, saying the allegations are false.How to sell a minor league hockey tournament?Korean organizers already were at a disadvantage when NHL officials decided to bypass the Olympics for the first time since 1994. Now the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) might boycott the games.Europe’s best league was expected to take two weeks off at midseason to allow its players to go to Pyeongchang, where the Russian team was a heavy favorite before the IOC ban. Some Russian NHL players stayed home this season so they could compete in Korea.If they do not make it to the Olympics then the hockey tournament will be depleted even further.
As a contingency, Canada is considering adding junior players — amateurs under the age of 21 — if the KHL decides to boycott.Before the IOC ban, Lee said organizers were disappointed for the athletes affected by the NHL’s decision.
“However, ice hockey is still a popular event,” he added. “The Korean hockey team will be participating in the Olympic Games for the first time and I am sure many people are looking forward to that. So regardless of the NHL players’ absence, ice hockey will be one of the most exciting sports to watch at the games with a world-class lineup of athletes taking part.”Now even that bit of optimism has faded.The 12-team tournament will have the big countries: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, the United States and “athletes from Russia.”But it appears it will not have the big names.How to overcome distrust over building bonanzas?Organizers have created an arrangement similar to previous Winter Games with mountain and coastal sports villages. The alpine town of Pyeongchang (pop. 43,000) will handle skiing, snowboarding and sliding sports, whereas much larger Gangneung (pop. 230,000) along the Sea of Japan will host figure skating, ice hockey and speedskating.Ten of the 12 competition sites already have owners: The ski jump landing area will be converted into a soccer stadium for Gangwon FC, while the cross-country and biathlon races will take place on snow-covered golf courses.But whether Pyeongchang ever becomes a world-class winter resort seems questionable. We had a dream. Two failed bids; tears shed twice. We continued, urged on by our single passion.” So says South Korea’s Gangwon province, in the country’s northeast, of its third-time-lucky bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.Depth of passion will continue to be needed to cope with one of the worst of recent international crises, and most Koreans’ relatively mild interest level in winter sports (skating excepted), not unlike Australians’.The Olympics will cost about 14 trillion won ($16.8 billion) for South Korea, including the 11 trillion won ($13.2bn) spent to construct or upgrade roads, the fast train and the venues for the Games. The Winter Olympics run February 9-25 and the Paralympics March 9-18.The effort and passion appear a struggle from a distance, because the Kim regime to the north would be able to undermine the Games’ future with a mere announcement it would not guarantee their safety.Despite some warnings of war clouds in the North’s nuclear-missile dispute with the US, preparations were nearing completion on the ground when The Australian visited Gangwon’s mountainous PyeongChang county and Gangneung city — both are places where Games events will be held — in early December.Organisers hope for as many as 200,000 foreign visitors to the Games. Snow has come early and so have subzero temperatures (and the snow-making machines are in readiness).Some South Korean sports officials continue to predict North Korea will still accept an invitation to compete at PyeongChang, which will remain open right until the opening.The national Olympic committees of the more than 90 jurisdictions are reportedly planning to attend. The International Olympic Committee has decided that East Asia will be an Olympics triangle for the next four years. First, PyeongChang, then the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020, and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022.There has been no clear signal from North Korea, only about 80 kilometres away.But that was largely out of discussion recently when the Korea Tourism Organisation chief executive Jung Chang-soo and the secretary-general of the PyeongChang Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), Yeo Hyung-koo, hosted about 180 foreign and local officials, media and travel agents at Hanwha Resort in PyeongChang. Instead, “passion” was often cited.A record turnout of nearly 3000 athletes is still predicted for the Games, and as many again in officials, although Australia will probably field only 50-60 competitors.Apart from construction, the communications preparations have been extensive, with about 20,000 volunteer guides from many countries for the Olympics and Paralympics, plus already-downloadable mobile apps and 5G speeds, foreign-language robots, and even a virtual-reality theatre with an athlete’s eye view for those who won’t want to venture into the cold.At a news conference and pageant dramatising the economic and cultural impact of the Games themselves and their legacy, Mr Jung said: “Ticket sales have been improving to a large extent which demonstrates increasing interest and participation in the Games. Korea, China and Japan will form a joint tourism operation [to promote the Olympic triangle.“The provocations of North Korea are not a new event and the tensions are between the military forces of the two Koreas,’’ Mr Jung said.“All Olympics are subject to terrorism risks. Now we have a situation where there is provocation from North Korea. But this is not a new event. Since 1953 there might have been tension but this has been tension between militaries. There has not been any terrorist acts against civilians. We are doing our best to have a peaceful Olympic Games.”But the country happened to have 600,000 troops, and military forces would be on standby outside the Olympic area and an evacuation system was ready.Such was the confidence expressed in preparations and attendance — not a single national Olympic committee had queried security, according to Mr Yeo — that the Games’ economic and soft-power legacy, said to be worth $US60 billion ($78bn) to South Korea in the following decade, was the focus. After the business and political gains that followed the 1988 Olympics, South Korea’s leaders are hoping for a repeat.More than half the minimum target of 1 million tickets have been sold but whether it can be said PyeongChang will attract the hoped-for 200,000 foreign visitors bearing at least 310,000 event tickets and spending $US2bn will have to wait until February.At the moment the focus is on stimulating lagging domestic interest with heavy advertising.Pocog’s Mr Yeo said that after holding the 1988 Olympic, and the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, South Korea would have a “grand slam” with the Winter Games, becoming one of only seven countries holding all three international events.“It has impact and huge meaning in other Asian countries in holding these kind of winter events. Korea holding the Winter Olympic Games, for our people and other Asian countries, has very much impact,’’ Mr Yeo said.Preparations were “going smoothly as planned”, he said. Construction at all 12 venues, the Olympic village and the broadcast centre had been completed. “We’re now looking at the operating side [so it] will proceed as planned.“[There is also a] focus is on promotion and ticket sales and preparing the environment for the athletes and for the peaceful staging of the Games.“We’re going to aim for full stadiums.”PyeongChang will be used as a training facility for the Beijing [Winter] Games. South Korea has a bit of a lack of base in winter sports. We hope to expand the horizon of winter sports in Korea so we want more interest from the public.”There had been no security concerns at that point raised by the NOCs, which had all signed necessary accommodation contracts, Mr Yeo said.“The IOC and NOCs and stakeholders are travelling across the sites to focus on preparations. There have been no messages of reluctance. About 104 countries may participate and 94 have registered interest, more than 84 for Sochi at this time of year.”Beijing banned its travel agencies from selling group tours to South Korea to its citizens in protest at the deployment of US anti-ballistic missiles in South Korea in 2017. But after a recent summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, South Korea seemed to be getting back on track with its Chinese arrivals.
Mr Moon says his country’s hosting of the Olympic Games will help promote peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia region, according to South Korea’s Yonghap news agency.“First of all, the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games being held safely itself will contribute greatly to peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said, noting the Winter Olympic Games will be followed by the Tokyo and Beijing games.“The three consecutive Olympic Games will be a great chance to promote peace and co-prosperity not only in the Korean Peninsula but the entire northeast Asian region,” he said.The spicy sauces and soups for which modern Korean cuisine is famous should be popular during the Games, and good for spectators to bring along. The forecast subzero cold is likely to be either daunting or exciting, depending on one’s frame of mind.A drive into the mountains now twists through isolated former mining towns and past frozen fields, frozen rivers, frozen forests and granite peaks that look in places like they’re sliding into the valleys. The sun sparkles on brittle ice covering the landscape; wind roars through the pine trees.The open-air PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, which despite its 118.4 billion-won cost is meant to be only temporary, will seat 35,000 chilled spectators on orange and pink seats during the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Olympics and Paralympics. It rises isolated on a plain, with mountains cascading down behind it.The Associated Press reports spectators will have to sit exposed for as long as five hours in the elements during the night-time ceremonies. Organisers plan to provide each spectator at the Olympics ceremonies with a raincoat, a small blanket and heating pads — one to sit on, one for the hands and a pair for the feet.They also plan to install polycarbonate walls above the highest seats across the two northwest sides of the stadium to block the strongest winds. About 40 portable gas heaters will be placed in aisles between the rows of plastic seats, and lots of hot coffee and tea, fish sticks and heated buns will be on sale.By the time the opening ceremony starts about 8pm (10pm AEDT) on February 9, the wind chill at the stadium could be much colder than at the ceremonies for the Vancouver and Sochi Games.A few weeks ago, when journalists visited PyeongChang county, one morning it was reported to be minus 13 in the area.“The only thing foreigners can do is the same thing locals do: bundle up,” Nam Sun-woo, 60, a fishmonger in PyeongChang, says. “Not many outsiders understand how cold it gets here. It’s not like where they’re from. This kind of cold is completely different.”The east-coast area of Gangneung, where skating and hockey will be held, are warmer than PyeongChang. But it’s still cold. Tourists can be seen in thick quilted coats standing on piers and posing for pictures as huge, frigid blue-green waves crash behind them.“It’s cold, and it’s going to get colder. But what can we do?” says Ahn Young Ju, 36, a restaurant owner in the remote town of Nammyeon in Jeongseon county, which will host the downhill skiing events. “We were born here, so we try not to think too much about it.”The international tensions appear to have had an impact on visits by Australians, which were down about 12 per cent to 12,299 for last October (compared with 14,021 in October 2016), the latest month available from KTO. But for the 10 months ended October, Australia was up 0.8 per cent to 125,222.All overseas visits were down 27 per cent to 1.17 million in October but the biggest downturn was an almost 50 per cent fall in Chinese visits, to about 345,000, under the impact of Beijing’s ban on group tours.Australians usually make up only about 1 per cent of South Korea’s annual visitor intake — last year more than 17 million — and the Chinese usually make up nearly half.But Australian visits to South Korea have grown by a multiple of 15 from about 10,000 in 1987, the year before the Seoul Olympics, to about 150,000 now, and this is about triple the percentage rise in all Australian overseas visits in those three decades. Now South Korea is projecting more than 20m foreign visits in 2018, including that hoped-for 200,000 for the Games and Paralympics.Kim Tai Hwan, the director of KTO’s Sydney office, says “it’s business as usual in Korea. No problems. I hope to see more expressions of interest in Korea, taking advantage of this opportunity.”But one long-time KTO staffer did concede the negative effects of North Korea’s tests and threats: “This has been the most difficult thing to deal with in all the years I’ve worked at KTO but we’ve endured and I’m sure that Korea next year, with the Olympic Games, as with the [2002] FIFA World Cup and the 1988 Olympic Games, will shine in front of the world.”DFAT’s Smart Traveller advice is: “Australians in the Republic of Korea should monitor developments closely due to the risk that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could escalate with little warning. The level of this advice has not changed.”The impact on travel insurance has been small, if any. For the period February 4 to March 3, 2018, Allianz this month quoted basic rates for a 40-year-old (including unlimited emergency assistance) of $118 for South Korea, $165 for the US, $113 for the UK and $106 for Bali.For visitors to the Games, there are dedicated mobile apps and a 24-hour hotline (dial 1330, option 2 for English).
The word “Russia” will appear on the Olympic uniforms worn by the athletes granted an exemption, despite the doping-related ban, for the PyeongChang Games. As many as 200 athletes are set to compete in South Korea as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia” if they can prove they are not tainted by doping. “Olympic Athletes from Russia” is the status imposed by the International Olympic Committee as part of Russia’s punishment across all sports for doping at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.Organisers expect North Korea to hold off for as long as possible on deciding whether to participate in the Games. “We are very hopeful and expect them [North Korean athletes] to be able to participate in the Games. At the same time, we do know that this may be a very last-minute decision by North Korea,” South Korean Sports Minister Do Jong-hwan said at an Olympics preview event in New York in November.Seoul’s Incheon International Airport has gained a second terminal to take the expected overflow of passengers and allow for future expansion of traffic. A new international cruise terminal was completed at the eastern port of Sokcho in August and it is planned a ship will be used as a floating hotel during the Games.The world’s latest high-speed trains in late December began regular passenger service to PyeongChang and Gangneung eastwards from Seoul, travelling at up to about 250 kilometres an hour, following the testing of a new, 120-km stretch that reaches the east coast after transiting more than 80 new tunnels and bridges.The new Korea train express (KTX) service is the most expensive element in infrastructure, costing about one third of the budget. At various speeds, it links Incheon International Airport, Seoul and other cities on the way through Gangwon province’s PyeongChang county to the Olympic co-host city of Gangneung on the coast. The KTX can transport as many as 20,000 passengers each day from Incheon and Seoul to PyeongChang and Gangneung, where they can transfer to shuttle buses.The longest journey time, between Incheon International Airport and Gangneung, will just under two hours, and there will be 51 trains scheduled to run each day during the Games. Those travelling direct the capital city, Seoul, will be able to reach PyeongChang in as little as 67 minutes.South Korea has for several years been running a KTX service successfully between the capital in the northeast and the country’s second city, Busan, on the southeast coast.The economic gain of a successful games is projected by the Korean Government at $US60bn in the 10 years beginning from 2018. Kicking this off, if all goes well, will be $US2bn in spending by about 200,000 foreign visitors in the country for the Olympics, followed by $US16bn from the investment in stadiums, roads, the rail and other infrastructure, including several new hotels.Organisers see several distinguishing points for these Games: South Korea’s internet and communications leadership, its use of the so-called internet of things to aid visitors, a focus on opening and closing ceremonies and other festivities that reflect Korean culture “so as to touch the hearts of spectators”, and the mid-February lunar New Year observances.One of the Olympics legacies is the capitalised C in PyeongChang, introduced so people don’t confuse it with the similar-sounding North Korean capital Pyongyang, which is not where many Olympics fans would want to end up by mistake.