Experience the 2018 Winter Olympics in Virtual Reality!

The 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea are underway! If you're integrating the Olympics into your classroom over the next couple of weeks try and add a little bit of virtual reality into the mix. Here are some Winter Olympics VR experiences!

NBC Sports VR App

The NBC Sports VR App is probably the best resource for VR content of the Winter Olympics! It's available on the following devices: iOS, Android, Oculus, Google Daydream, and Windows Mixed Reality.

For iOS and Android devices, the app provides some of the best virtual reality experiences for a variety of events and sports surrounding the Olympics. You can also track Medals earned for each country.

A cable network account is required to login to the NBC Sports VR App in order to access all of the content.



The following sports and events are being covered in VR in the app:

• Opening & Closing Ceremonies
• Alpine Skiing
• Curling
• Figure Skating
• Freestyle Skiing
• Ice Hockey
• Nordic Sports (Ski Jumping, Cross Country, Biathlon, Sprint Classic, etc.)
• Sliding Sports (Bobsled, skeleton)
• Snowboard
• Speed Skating
• Rio 2016

Example Snowboarding VR video in the NBC Sports VR app

Google Street View

The Google Street View mobile app for iOS and Android is another great option for having students travel around South Korea in search of the different Winter Olympic venues. In my own search I was able to find 15 different venue locations for the Olympics along with their official names. If you know the names of the venues your students can easily search in the Google Street View app to find 360° Street View photospheres.

I've created a Google My Map that pins the name and location of each of the Winter Olympic Venues:

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 Venue Locations


In Google Street View use the search box to locate different venues. You'll find a variety of 360° photospheres from different people and different times. As the Olympics continue, I'm sure we'll continue to see even more current Street View images appear at these locations.

Street View by 정영훈, PyeongChang Olympic Stadium

Street View by Kiljae Lee, Alpensia Ski Jumping Center

Google Expeditions

The Google Expeditions app for iOS and Android has one expedition of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which was used for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The scenes for this expedition include:

• Stratford Station
• View from the Olympic Rings
• Lee Valley VeloPark
• Outside the Olympic Aquatic Center

The Modern Games with NYT VR

The NYT VR app for iOS and Android has some amazing VR news stories and documentaries. One in particular, The Modern Games, was created in 2016 before the summer Olympics in Rio. The video takes you through a timeline of the Olympics, starting with the first modern games in Athens in 1896 and then back to Rio in 2016.

Scroll through the NYT VR app to find "The Modern Games"

If you want to learn more about the VR coverage of the Winter Olympics visit this article from nbcolympics.com website: Experience the 2018 Winter Olympics in virtual reality. There is even a schedule of LIVE VR coverage that you can watch from the NBC Sports App. You should also visit Olympics.org and PyeongChang2018.com for general information.