The 1998 Winter Olympics, formally the Template:Nihongo4, were a winter multi-sport event held in Nagano, Japan, from February 7 to 22, 1998. 72 countries and 2,176 athletes competed in 7 sports and 68 events over 15 sites. Women's ice hockey, curling, and snowboarding were all introduced at the Games. The Nagano Games were the first Winter Olympic Games to be held in Japan since 1964; they were also the first time that a South Korean president attended these games. In addition to the regular season, which ended with the championship game on Sunday, February 22, there was also a qualifying round for teams who had not achieved enough rankings points to advance directly to the next stage. These preliminary rounds took place between December 3 and 8, 1997. The top eight ranked nations as determined by their placement in the previous year's championships qualified for the World Cup of Hockey 1998. The remaining nations went into a play-off series called the "Olympic Qualification Tournament" to determine which ones would go to Switzerland for the final tournament. Nagano hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics from February 7 to 22. It was the second time that Nagano has hosted the Olympics after Sapporo did so in 1972. Nagano is a Japanese city approximately 60 miles north of Tokyo on the upper reaches of the Nagano Plain. The city is known for its beautiful scenery, including Mount Yari and Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan.