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6 ways to enjoy the 2018 Winter Olympics using Google Home

While you can't watch the 2018 Winter Olympics with your Google Home speaker, you can still use it to follow along. Here's how.

Taylor Martin CNET Contributor
Taylor Martin has covered technology online for over six years. He has reviewed smartphones for Pocketnow and Android Authority and loves building stuff on his YouTube channel, MOD. He has a dangerous obsession with coffee and is afraid of free time.
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Taylor Martin
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With the 2018 Olympic Games officially underway, it can be difficult to keep track of everything that's going on. While you can't necessarily watch the Olympics with your Google Home speaker (you'll need a media streamer or VR headset for that) you can still use Google Home to follow along and test your knowledge. Here's how.

Olympic athlete facts

Some of the Olympic athletes this time around may be new to you. If you find yourself wondering who is representing your country, you can just ask Google Home about them. Say things like:

  • "OK, Google , how tall is [athlete's name]?"
  • "OK, Google, how old is [athlete's name]?"
  • "OK, Google, where did [athlete's name] go to college?"
  • "OK, Google, how many medals has [athlete's name] won?"
  • "OK, Google, how much does [athlete's name] weigh?"
  • "OK, Google, where was [athlete's name] born?"

Google won't always have the answer, especially if the athlete is completely new or relatively unknown, but it's a good place to start.

Watch this: How to stream the Winter Olympics on any device

Olympic facts

You can also ask Google Home for interesting facts about the Winter Olympics themselves. Say, "OK, Google, tell me a fun fact about the games in Pyeongchang."

It explained the term "snurfer," which is a combination of "snow" and "surfer," or what we now call snowboarding. And it told me about Francisco Fernández Ochoa, the first Spanish gold medalist in the Winter Games for giant slalom in 1972, and his sister, Blanca Fernández Ochoa, who became the first Spanish female Olympian to win a medal 20 years later.

Olympic Channel

Olympic Channel is an Assistant app that lets you play Olympic trivia, learn about athletes and get the latest news.

To get started, just say, "OK, Google, let me talk to Olympic Channel." Follow the prompts (such as allowing Olympic Channel to get your name from Google) and then say something like, "Play a game" or "Tell me about Elana Meyers Taylor."

One feature, called News Feed, is not active just yet (since the games have just started), but should become functional once there's some news to go around, such as gold medals won and other happenings.

NBC Sports Trivia

There is also a Google Home game from NBC made specifically for the Winter Olympics. Just say, "OK, Google, open NBC Sports Trivia." It will ask you a mixture of five multiple choice and true-or-false questions each time you play.

Watch updates on Chromecast

Since NBC is the broadcasting partner for this round of the Winter Olympics, you can use Google Home to stream news updates to a nearby Chromecast. Just say, "OK, Google, play NBC Sports on [Chromecast name]." The latest Olympic updates from the NBC Sports YouTube channel will play in reverse chronological order. Just know that you may also get some general sports updates along the way, as well.

Ask who won

The Google Blog also says you will be able to ask who won certain events. Just say something like, "OK, Google, who won the women's 1,000 meter speed skating in the Olympics?" or "OK, Google, who won mixed doubles curling in the Olympics?"

Just keep in mind that no events are over yet, so there are no winners to announce… yet.

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