The XXIII Olympic Winter Games will be held this February 9-25 in PyeongChang, South Korea. The usual contenders will be fighting it out for gold in downhill skiing, ice hockey and skating, but did you know…?

• Two of the most popular Winter Olympic sports, figure skating and ice hockey, were originally part of the Summer Olympics
• Horses once participated in the Winter games in the skijoring event, in which competitors on skis raced each other as they were towed by riderless horses
• Only one person has ever won gold in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.  American Eddie Eagen captured gold in the light-heavyweight boxing in 1920 and a dozen years later, he was a member of the winning four-man bobsled team in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid
• The oldest Olympic medallist received his medal at age 83. Anders Haugen was a ski-jumper who competed in 1924, but because of a scoring error he did not receive his bronze medal until 50 years later
• Women were allowed to compete in ski-jump for the first time at the Sochi games in 2014. Prior to this, it was a male-only competition
• The most successful competitor in the Winter games is Bjorn Daehlie, who has won gold medals and 4 silver in cross-country skiing
• Norway has captured more gold than anyone else. Although it is a country of just five million people, Norway enters the 2018 games with a record of well over 100 gold medals and more than 300 in total. It is one of only three countries that has won more medals in the Winter Games than in the Summer