Australia might not be renowned for its prowess in winter sports – we live on a bloody dry continent, don’t we mate? – but we’ve got a strong contingent at this year’s Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Our prospects look pretty good, and there’s always the chance one of our athletes pulls a Stephen Bradbury, too.

If you want to watch live, online and free throughout the Winter Olympics, then we’ve got you covered.

What Is The Winter Olympics?

Guys, I don’t have to explain this one, I’m sure. The Winter Olympics is a quadrennial event that incorporates 100 events over 15 different sports, where nations from around the world send their best athletes to prove that they are Very Good At Sports.

This year, the XXIII Winter Olympics takes place in PyeongChang, South Korea, one of the coldest places in the world (for it’s latitude!)

What is different about the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics? There’s been a lot of talk around the conditions – it is cold – but the region doesn’t always get that much snow. Tensions between South Korea and North Korea have also been at the forefront of discussions and the two nations will field a unified women’s ice hockey team at this years games.

In the wake of major doping scandals, the Russian Olympic team were barred from the games by the International Olympic Committee and only their whitelisted athletes will compete as, essentially, independents under the Olympic flag. Their ‘team’ will fall under the title ‘Olympic Athletes From Russia’.

Australia will have 51 athletes compete this year, across 15 sports.

When Is The PyeongChang Winter Olympics?

The games run from February 9 to February 25, 2018.

The opening ceremony takes place on February 9, 2018, from PyeongChang, South Korea. That translates to a pretty good time for most Australians, with the majority of the opening ceremony taking place in the evening. Officially, the opening ceremony starts at 10pm AEDT, February 9. Western Australian? You’ve got the Winter Olympics in primetime, so you can take that sticky summer weather, throw it out the window and drink in the wondrous, cold South Korean snow fields.

Here’s the time for the opening ceremony in all capital cities:

• Perth, WA: 7pm
• Darwin, NT: 8:30pm
• Brisbane, QLD: 9pm
• Adelaide, SA: 9:30pm
• Sydney, NSW: 10pm
• Canberra, ACT: 10pm
• Melbourne, VIC: 10pm
• Hobart, TAS: 10pm

If you’re looking for medal events, the first of these take place on Saturday, February 10, with Gold, Silver and Bronze being handed out in cross country skiing and one of the traditional favourites, speed skating. You can check the full schedule here, which gives you access to start times and local times! Very handy.

Take note! Some events are live from today, February 8, including the luge and curling!

How To Watch The PyeongChang Winter Olympics

The good news? There are plenty of ways to stream the Winter Olympics for free in Australia.

Firstly, you can always tune into Channel 7’s free-to-air stations, which will have coverage of the Olympics from 11am AEDT every single day. You may need to switch between channel 70 and channel 73, depending on the time and day of the week, because of course Channel 7 loves to get in their My Kitchen Rules fix, too.

If you’d rather be streaming online because you’re stuck at work or you just can’t be bothered turning the telly on, you can head straight to 7PLUS, Channel 7’s online streaming service that provides a live feed of their channels. That will be a surefire way to catch the Winter Olympics for free. You can also download the 7PLUS app to your phone – grab it for Android here and for iOS here.

Not to be outdone by their own amount of streaming options, Channel 7 also have a dedicated Olympics app. This is yet another way to get access to the Winter Olympics, but this comes with a range of extras such as content not seen on TV, athlete bios and medal tallys. If you’re on Android, click here. If you’re on iOS, click here! If you’d rather be using that same app, but on your desktop, then you’re also in luck! Channel 7 have the Olympics ‘app’ live for desktop too.

Prior to the opening ceremony, the streaming options on the app and desktop are the only way to get access to the games.

Click here for the Olympics on 7 Desktop Livestream!

Are there other ways to consume Olympics content this year? Of course! Fortunately, they don’t involve sitting in the freezing PyeongChang stadiums, physically watching the athletes compete.

I particularly like surfing the Olympics subreddit, which features a lot of interesting stories and plenty of the big news and highlights. Often, it’s one of the first places you can find a replay event. Similarly, you can follow the Olympics Twitter account for updates on anything happening at the games.

This article was originally published by Lifehacker Australia. Read the original here.

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