The International Olympic Committee announced today that Pyeongchang, South Korea will host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. This will be the first Winter Games held in Asia outside of Japan.  Koreans celebrated the news with fireworks displays around a newly constructed ski jump in Pyeongchang. There have been two previous attempts to bring the Olympic Games to Pyeongchang –losing to Vancouver, Canada followed by Sochi, Russia four years later. The motto for these games, “New Horizons”, reflects the 20 years that Asia has gone without hosting the Winter Olympics. The massive population and potential fan base for winter sports was an important factor in Pyeongchang’s bid. South Korea has spent billions of dollars updating infrastructure and preparing for the possibility of hosting the games. For rights to broadcast the games to your TV lift cabinet, NBC shelled out a whopping $963 million! Pyeongchang beat out Munich and Annecy, France at an International Olympic Committee’s 123^rd Session in Durban, South Africa.