2018 Winter Olympics,opening ceremony,The PyeongChang Games have finally arrived , II How to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony

Members of the South Korean air force’s Black Eagles aerobatic team performed above the ski jumping venue Jan. 10. (Yonhap/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

After years of preparation and billions of dollars in investment, the 2018 Olympic Winter Games are finally here.
Mixed doubles curling matches and ski jumping qualifying are already in the books. Figure skating starts tonight (8 Eastern time). The Opening Ceremonies — which are relatively short so that no one freezes — are Friday morning (6 Eastern). Katie Couric returns to NBC to co-host with Bob Costas’s replacement, Mike Tirico.
These are the 23rd Olympic Winter Games. The first were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The most recent were four years ago in Sochi, Russia. This year, the host is PyeongChang, South Korea. It’s the second time South Korea has held an Olympics. The first came in 1988, when Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics.
PyeongChang is about 100 miles east of Seoul, the capital, where many visitors will be staying. Thanks to a new bullet train built for the Games, the trip only takes about 90 minutes. Events are being held both in the Taebaek Mountains, along the eastern edge of the Korean Peninsula, as well as in the coastal city of Gangneung.
The weather in PyeongChang has been frigid. Organizers are distributing blankets, Visa’s credit card readers are freezing, and Team USA members are flipping on their battery-powered jackets in what might turn out to be the coldest Winter Olympics in history. (The Sochi Games, in contrast, were the warmest).
Despite the cold, dignitaries have been trickling in to South Korea. Vice President Pence landed in Seoul on Thursday to lead the American Olympic delegation. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister and close adviser, Kim Yo-Jong, is also in town. It’s the first time a member of the family has set foot in South Korea. Pence and Kim will be at the Opening Ceremonies on Friday.
Also on Thursday, North Korea staged a military parade, complete with missiles and fiery rhetoric aimed at the United States. The event was moved up from its usual April time slot to just one day before the Games.

The Post has sent a team of reporters, editors and videographers to PyeongChang to provide you with the latest in-depth coverage. All of our latest stories and posts will be available on this Olympic thread.

The 23rd Winter Games officially kick off on Friday, February 9, with the opening ceremony in PyeongChang Olympic Stadium. This is the second time South Korea has had the Games, thirty years after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and the third time Asia has served as host. The motto of the Pyeongchang's winning bid “new horizons” meshed well with the International Olympic Committee's mission to expand the scope and popularity of winter sports to new regions of the world. It ended up beating out winter sport powerhouses Munich, Germany, and Annecy, France. Here are some key facts and figures that reflect the economy, athletics, and humanity of the 32nd Olympiads which last 17 days from February 8 to February 25.

Olympic athletes from Russia women's hockey team practice at the Kwandong Hockey Centre prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

HOST CITY
700: Meters PyeongChang lies above sea level. Residents believe this is the optimal altitude for humans and animals to live and have coined their location as the “Happy 700”.
43,700: Population; 3rd largest city in South Korea and smallest to host since Lillehammer, Norway in 1994.
111: Number of miles (180 kilometers) east of capital Seoul.
50: Number of miles (80 kilometers) south of the Demilitarized Zone dividing North Korea and South Korea.
14: Number of hours city is ahead of U.S. Eastern Time Zone.
17-35: Projected average low and high temperatures in Fahrenheit degrees.
BUSINESS
$12.9 Billion: Estimated cost of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
$3.5 Billion - $9.5 Billion: Proposed cost put forth in the city’s winning bid ($1.5 billion for the actual Games and $2 billion to $6 billion for infrastructure).
$50 Billion+: Cost of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
$880 Million: Estimated International Olympic Committee contribution to PyeongChang 2018 Organizing Committee.

Sergei Bobylev\TASS via Getty Images

It’s that time again. The XXIII Winter Olympic Games are here.

This year, the Olympic Games are being held in PyeongChang, South Korea. And while some events started the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 7, in the U.S. (or Thursday in Korea), the official opening ceremony and lighting of the Olympic torch will take place Friday, Feb. 9.

The opening ceremony will start at 8 pm KT (that’s 6 am ET / 3 am PT here in the U.S.).

NBC*, which exclusively holds the rights to the Olympic Games, will air the ceremony on its broadcast TV channel at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT on Friday. While that’s 14 hours after the ceremony actually occurred in South Korea, it’s more conveniently timed for prime-time advertising and U.S. viewing.

No TV? You can also watch a livestream, which is available through NBC’s apps, including NBC, NBC Sports and NBC’s Olympics website.

Don’t want to wait 14 hours after the event has happened to watch? Wake up early and head to NBCOlympics.com, which will be airing the opening ceremony at 6 am ET / 3 am PT. You’ll need to use a password from a traditional cable company you subscribe to or from another TV service like Hulu, PlayStation Vue or YouTube TV to log in.

Richard Heathcote / Getty

Just want to stay on social media? We hear you. There’s a number of athletes using the #WinterOlympics hashtag on Twitter who you can follow.

For other viewing and streaming options, our sister site The Verge has put together a detailed how-to guide to Olympic viewing.

And for full coverage on medal counts, results and just about everything else you can think of, check out our other sister site, SB Nation.

* NBCUniversal is a minority investor in Vox Media, which owns this site. Vox Media has also collaborated with NBCUniversal on The Podium, a podcast series about the Olympics.