This year’s Winter Olympics will showcase some of the world’s best athletes across 116 different events in eight sports, attempting to ski, skate, snowboard, curl and sleigh their way to a gold medal. But you may be disappointed by the lack of options to catch all of the Olympic action this winter if you don’t have access to the right services.
This winter, the Olympics are being held in Milan and Cortina, Italy, from Wednesday to Feb. 22, with the opening ceremony on Friday. In the US, you can find TV broadcasts of the Winter Olympic Games on your local NBC affiliate, the USA Network and on CNBC. Peacock is the primary streaming option for viewers in the US, with streaming also available through the NBC Sports app, nbc.com and nbcolympics.com. While your local NBC station is available for free if you have an OTA TV antenna or DVR, you may not be able to catch all of what you want to watch on NBC alone. And because the cable and streaming options require a paid subscription, you’d need to pay to get the most out of your Olympics viewing experience in the US.
However, with a virtual private network, you can access free online streams from other countries -- potentially letting you watch all of the events you want without having to pay a cent. A VPN is an app that you can download to your computer, mobile device or streaming device that allows you to spoof your virtual location, making it appear as though you’re connecting to the internet from a different country and enabling you to access geographically restricted streaming content. So even if you’re in the US, you may still be able to expand your Winter Olympic streaming options and catch all the action you want for free. Because with a VPN, you can unblock free region-restricted Olympics streams.
What countries have free streaming options for the Winter Olympics?
Many countries across the globe offer options to stream the Olympics for free. Bear in mind that the majority of these international streams are broadcast in a foreign language, so some sites may be difficult to navigate and the commentary could be indecipherable to you if you don’t understand the language. Also, some of these sites might require you to create an account and/or enter a valid postal code in the country to access the content. If that’s the case for the site you want to stream on, simply do a quick internet search for postal codes in the applicable country to plug in and get started.
For English-speaking Olympic broadcasts from other countries, you can turn to:
Other international streaming options presented in other languages include:
These are just a few examples of the many international streaming sites you can try accessing with a VPN to broaden your Olympic viewing experience. Keep in mind that not all VPNs or server locations are guaranteed to work perfectly to stream the Olympics from other regions, so you may need to hop around and try different servers or streaming sites to access the content you want. Also, be sure to check each site’s terms of service to ensure that you’re not violating its terms by using a VPN. Using a VPN is perfectly legal in the vast majority of the world, but some sites and services may attempt to restrict VPN usage.
How to access geo-restricted Olympics streams with a VPN
A VPN encrypts your internet traffic while routing it through a secure server in a different location, which hides your online activity from your internet provider, network administrator and other online snoops. At the same time, a VPN changes your IP address to the IP address of the VPN server you’re connecting through, making your connection appear to be originating from another location. A VPN is a crucial tool for boosting your privacy online, but it’s the IP address switching functionality that lets you access geo-restricted content from other regions.
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