569 athletes representing a record 49 National Paralympic Committees participated in these Games, including 3 newcomers Georgia, North Korea and Tajikistan. Following its debut as disciplines under the Alpine programme in Sochi, snowboarding was expanded into a separate sport with 8 additional events.
Pyeongchang was elected as host during the 123rd IOC Session in Durban in 2011, earning the required majority of at least 48 votes in the first round of voting.[2][3]
Competitions in the 2018 Winter Paralympics are being held in six Winter Paralympic sports, with 80 medal events in total. Snowboarding has been expanded into a separate discipline for 2018, with 10 medal events (in 2014, two medal events in snowboarding were held within the alpine skiing programme).
In the following calendar for the 2018 Winter Paralympics, each blue box represents an event competition. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport are held. The number in each yellow box represents the number of finals that are contested on that day.[5]
Four more nations competed in Pyeongchang than at the previous winter games. Georgia, North Korea and Tajikistan all made their Winter Paralympics debut,[19] while Hungary fielded a team after not competing in 2014. Tajikistan is the only country who had sent an athlete to these Games but not the 2018 Winter Olympics.
In total, 133 female athletes competed at the event.[20]
Television rights were sold in various countries and territories; the IPC partnered with the IOC's streaming service Olympic Channel for online streaming coverage of these Paralympics.[24]
In the United States, NBC Sports announced plans to air nearly twice as much coverage on linear television as it did in Sochi, totaling 250 hours,[26] along with extensive online streaming coverage.[27]
Channel 4 returned as the Games' rightsholder in the United Kingdom, planning over 100 hours of television coverage on Channel 4 and 4seven.[29]
Tickets
Ticket prices for the 2018 Winter Paralympics were announced on 8 June 2017 and tickets went on sale on 21 August 2017.[30]
Prices for sporting event tickets range from ₩10,000 to 50,000 (approx. $8–45 USD). Opening and closing ceremony tickets range from ₩10,000 to ₩140,000 (approx. $8–125 USD).[30][31]
As of 19 January, tickets to the Paralympic Games were 70% sold. (155,000 tickets out of a total of 223,353 allocated).[32][33][34]
Marketing
Emblem
The emblem for the 2018 Winter Paralympics was unveiled on 29 October 2013 at the National Museum of Korea. It incorporates stylized renditions of the hangul letter ㅊch (as also used in the Olympic emblem), which symbolizes part of the name Pyeongchang and resembles ice crystals. The Paralympic emblem features two of these letters joined together, symbolizing equality and a "grand" festival welcoming international athletes and spectators.[35][36]
The official mascots of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 2 June 2016. The Paralympic mascot, Bandabi, is an Asian black bear that symbolizes "strong will and courage".[37]
Cultural events
To attract interest from residents and foreign tourists, the Korea Tourism Organization organized Snow Festival, a "Hallyu festival", to serve as cultural programming for the Paralympics. Actors Jang Keun-suk and Lee Dong-wook purchased 2,018 and 1,000 tickets for themselves and fans to attend meetups at para ice hockey games, while a K-pop concert featuring B1A4 and BtoB was also organized.[38][39][40][41][42]
Prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics, North Korea agreed to have its athletes march together with those of the South Korean team during the opening ceremonies, and field a unified women's hockey team. However, during a meeting in Pyeongchang between the leaders of their National Paralympic Committees, the two countries were unable to organize a similar arrangement for the Paralympics. The South Korean Paralympic Committee stated that North Korean officials had requested that the Liancourt Rocks (which are the subject of an ongoing sovereignty dispute between South Korea and Japan) be included on the Korean Unification Flag during the Paralympics. South Korea declined this request, as they considered it contradictory to IPC recommendations against political gestures.[43]
IPC president Andrew Parsons expressed disappointment over the decision, but noted that the country "respects and values the IPC's vision and mission" and had "committed to working further with the IPC to improve the lives of people with an impairment in North Korea", while also acknowledging that the IOC had "made great progress in opening up dialogue between the two nations" prior to the Olympics, and that their meeting "underlines the tremendous ability of sport to bring countries together in positive dialogue."[44]
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