Wednesday, Feb. 7 marked the beginning of the 2018 Winter Olympics, held for 20 days in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The opening ceremony took fans by storm. The ceremony featured South Korean culture, history and heritage. South Korean technology was a main component of the ceremony, complete with big performances and a spectacular firework show ending.
United States athletes took to social media, giving fans a behind the scenes look at the ceremony. Snowboarder Shaun White premiered the ceremony on his Snapchat, and his fans were able to get a sneak preview of the ceremony happenings.
PyeongChang is 14 hours ahead of the U.S. and the Opening Ceremony was not shown on U.S. television until the following night.
There have been some political sights in the games this year because of it being held in South Korea. North Korean athletes are participating, and they walked with their fellow Koreans into the ceremony.
Russia was banned from the Olympic Games, but some Russian athletes are still competing individually and under a neutral Olympic flag.This came up after an alleged state-sponsored cover-up of doping by its athletes.
The medal race has begun and in the lead is Norway with a total of nine medals, three of them gold.
Three countries are in a three-way tie for second place, including Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, each with seven medals. The U.S. got a strong start to the games with a current total of four medals, two of which are gold.
The U.S. won both of their gold medals in the snowboarding competition. The first medal winner was 17-year-old Redmond Gerard with a great run on the slopes.
The other snowboarder to place was Jamie Anderson on the women’s team.
Chris Mazdzer from the men’s luge team came out with a silver, and the figure skating team event came together to win a bronze.
Nine U.S. Olympians are representing Pennsylvania in the games, most of whom play for the men’s ice hockey team.
A lot of eyes are on 28 year-old figure skater Adam Rippon, a Scranton, Pennsylvania native who is competing in his first Olympics.
There are a lot of things to look for in the coming weeks as the games continue.
