The Winter Olympic Games have come to an end. While the global community is cheering new heroes, the time is ripe to reckon how much South Korea’s authorities have spent to host the Olympics in PyeongChang. This time, Russia cannot boast about the leadership in winter sports. The tally of medals won in PyeongChang brings Russia only the 13th rank. However, it is hard to compete with Russia in terms of expenses.
Obsessed with megalomania, Russia spared no expense to arrange the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014. According to the official estimates, the overall budget exceeded $50 billion. For the whole history of the Olympic Movement, not a single country in the world has allocated such enormous money for sports. Citing Nancy Park, a spokesperson for the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee of South Korea, the Asian country has kept to the modest budget of $12.5 billion. The Paralympic Games are scheduled for March 9-18, but they will not much overrun the original budget. The South Korean government made the most contribution, allocating $10.1 billion for the infrastructure. The operating costs amount to $2.4 billion.
