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how often are the winter olympics games held ~~

The Winter Olympic Games are held every four years.

Quick Scoop

  • The Winter Olympics follow a fixed four-year cycle, known as a quadrennial schedule.
  • Since the 1990s, the Winter Games have been staggered so they take place two years apart from the Summer Olympics, but each is still every four years in its own cycle.
  • Recent and upcoming Winter Games:
    • 2018 – Pyeongchang, South Korea.
* 2022 – Beijing, China.
* 2026 – Milan–Cortina, Italy.

In forum discussions and news explainers, you’ll often see it summarized as: “Yes, the Winter Olympics really are every 4 years – just like the Summer Games, but offset so something big happens every two years.”

Why every four years?

  • The four-year rhythm mirrors the ancient Olympic tradition and gives host cities time to build venues and infrastructure.
  • It also gives athletes a long training and qualification cycle, which adds to the “once-in-a-generation” feel of big Olympic moments.

Any exceptions?

  • The pattern was only interrupted during World War II, when the 1940 and 1944 Winter Games were cancelled.
  • Since then, despite global events and occasional debates online about changing the schedule, the Winter Games have consistently stayed on the four-year cycle.

Bottom line: if you watched a Winter Olympics recently, you can expect the next edition to arrive four years later, with a Summer Olympics landing roughly two years in between.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.