2018 Winter Olympics the country overall, after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. It was the third time that an East Asian country had hosted the Winter Games, after Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998), both in Japan. It was also the first of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the other two being the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Games featured 102 events over fifteen disciplines in seven sports, with the addition of "big air" snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic
Venues of the 1972 Winter Olympics with the 1940 Summer Olympics. Okurayama was constructed using private funds in 1931. At the 1959 IOC Meeting in Munich, Tokyo was selected to host the 1964 Summer Olympics. This inspired Sapporo to try to host the 1968 Winter Olympics. Sapporo submitted its bid in 1963 to the IOC. On 29 January 1964 at the IOC Meeting in Innsbruck, Sapporo finished a distant fourth to winner Grenoble for the 1968 Winter Games. Following observations of the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, an aggressive public relations campaign began with Sapporo and the IOC to bring the 1972 Winter Games to Sapporo.