The Olympic Council of Asia has praised and congratulated the organisers of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games that came to a successful conclusion on Sunday night.

PyeongChang 2018 is the first of three consecutive Olympic Games to be staged in the so-called “Asian Era” and will be followed by the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

“The OCA would like to congratulate Korea and the International Olympic Committee for the excellent organisation of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Korea,” said the OCA President, H.E. Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah.

“The whole of Asia can feel proud about the success of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Korea and this demonstrates the commitment of the Asian continent to develop winter sports and promote the values of the Olympic Games.

“The technical aspects of PyeongChang 2018 reflect well on the OCA’s Asian Winter Games, particularly the 8th AWG held in Sapporo, Japan, in February 2017. Many of the top athletes from Sapporo 2017 have gone on to win medals in PyeongChang 2018, including several gold medals.”

A total of 451 Asian athletes qualified to represent 19 Asian National Olympic Committees in PyeongChang.

Asia won a total of 40 medals, comprising 10 gold medals, 19 silver and 11 bronze. Korea finished seventh in the final medal table with a gold-silver-bronze record of 5-8-4 (total 17), followed by Japan in 11th place with 4-5-4 (13), China in 16th with 1-6-2 (9) and Kazakhstan (28=) with 0-0-1.

Thirty NOCs of the 92 competing won medals.

H.E. Sheikh Ahmad concluded: “The OCA would like to thank Korea, the IOC, the Asian athletes and all the Asian NOCs who participated in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games and contributed to such an outstanding success enjoyed by the world.”

- Advertisement -