For the first time in history, the largest number of athletes will participate in the Winter Youth Olympic Games.
A record-breaking 1,900 athletes will compete in South Korea in January to become the next generation of winter sports stars at Asia’s first Youth Olympic Games.
The first Winter Youth Olympic Games to be held in Asia will be held in Gangwon Province in the north-east of South Korea. It will also be the first to be held outside Europe.
These Winter Youth Olympics will give many young cold-sport stars with the opportunity to make their mark on the world stage for the first time. There will be 81 Olympic titles up for grabs, and once again there will be gender parity with 34 events for both men and women.
The number of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participating in the Winter Games is growing, and the diversity of athletes is increasing with each edition.
The youth competition, which begins on 19 January, will use existing venues and will be divided into two ma blocks: outdoor mountain events at Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang and indoor ice track events in Gangneung.
Competition will take place in 15 disciplines grouped into seven sports: biathlon, bobsleigh (including skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, ice skating (including figure skating, short track, and speed skating), and skiing (including alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding).
The Gangneung Coastal Park, north of PyeongChang, will provide indoor facilities, including the hockey center. The Gangneung Oval will host speed skating, while short track and figure skating will take place on the ice rink at the same venue.
One of the curiosities of the Olympics, which end on Thursday 1 February, is that the opening ceremony will be held simultaneously at the Gangneung Oval and the Pyeongchang Dome, with performances by various K-pop stars. The former will be the only venue where admission will be charged, while the rest will be free for both the ceremonial and sporting events.
In terms of sports disciplines, as mentioned above, there will be gender parity (similar to Lausanne 2020) with 15 disciplines in seven sports at the Gangwon 2024 YOG, including biathlon, bobsleigh (including skeleton), curling, ice hockey, luge, skating (including figure skating, short track and speed skating), and skiing (including alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboarding).
For the first time in the history of the Winter Youth Olympic Games, there will be no mixed events for the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) as they will be replaced by events of the same or similar format events with teams from the same NOC.
In addition, two new 1,500 m short track speed skating events of 1,500m will be introduced for Gangwon, while a new mixed relay will replace the mixed NOC relay in cross-country skiing. There will be a mixed team and the number of freestyle events will be increased from eight to 12 events.
Among the athletes who could potentially emerge as future stars are Lucia Georgalli (New Zealand), Lee Chae-un (South Korea), and Choi Ga-on (South Korea) in snowboarding; Flora Tabanelli (Italy) in freestyle skiing; Shin Ji-a (South Korea) in figure skating.
In alpine skiing, Annika Hunt (USA) and Miha Oserban (Slovenia) are promising youngsters, while in figure skating, Shin Ji-a (South Korea), Naoki Rossi (Switzerland) and Shimada Mao (Japan) are the stars of tomorrow (and today).
It is well known that the best athletes take home the medals, and design is becoming increasingly important. This time around, the design competition attracted over 3,000 entries, with Brazilian artist Dante Akira Uwai emerging as the winner. His creation, entitled ‘A Sparkling Future,’ features bright geometric shapes and is his geometric interpretation of the IOC’s ‘Grow Together, Shine Forever’ motto.
It was chosen after receiving feedback from “a diverse group of people of different genders, ages and countries of residence”, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the organisers. The public also had a hand in choosing the official song for Gangwon 2024, following a competition among young South Koreans aged 14 to 24.
Entitled ‘We Go High,’ the winning song by Kim Geun-Hak encourages young people to believe in themselves and follow their dreams at the Youth Olympic Games, while also addressing the future of peace that everyone is helping to create.
Finally, we cannot forget the official mascot of the event: Moongcho. Its name comes from the Korean word “Moongchida,” which means to gather different thoughts and powers. Born from a snowball used in a snowball fight between the PyeongChang 2018 mascots, Soohorang and Bandabi, Moongcho represents youth coming together and growing through the Youth Olympic Games.
