Youth Olympic Games

Youth Olympic Games logo

The Youth Olympic Games ( English Youth Olympic Games (YOG), French Jeux Olympiques de la Jeunesse (JOJ)) are multi-sport under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee held (IOC), which every four years. As with the Olympic Games , Summer and Winter Games are played, but unlike the Olympic Games, the Youth Games are aimed at athletes between the ages of 14 and 18.

The Summer Youth Olympic Games take place in the year of the Winter Olympic Games and the Winter Youth Games in the year of the Summer Olympic Games. The 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games were in Singapore in 2010 - the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012 in Innsbruck ( Austria ).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the IV Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2022, which should take place in Dakar ( Senegal ), have been canceled and postponed to 2026 .

Emergence

On July 5, 2007, at the initiative of their then President Jacques Rogge , the IOC members decided to introduce a youth version of the Olympic Games, but the Austrian Johann Rosenzopf had the idea for the Youth Olympic Games back in 1998. Nobody showed any interest at the time - including the International Olympic Committee that rejected the idea in view of the full sports calendar. A legal dispute arose over the idea for the youth games - in the course of this legal dispute, Rosenzopf was finally recognized and recognized by the IOC in November 2010 as the source of the idea for the youth games.

After the decision in July 2007, eleven cities showed interest in hosting the first 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games. The IOC accepted applications from Athens , Bangkok , Debrecen , Guatemala , Kuala Lumpur , Moscow , Poznan , Singapore and Turin . The field of applicants was again reduced by the IOC to Moscow and Singapore, and on February 21, 2008, Singapore's application prevailed with 53:44 votes.

On December 12, 2008, the IOC announced that the first 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in Innsbruck, where the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Games had already taken place. The Austrian city in Tyrol had prevailed against Harbin , Kuopio and Lillehammer .

concept

Youth Olympic Games logo before October 2017

Even before the introduction of the Youth Games, there were sporting events for the youth as part of the Olympic Movement, such as the European Youth Olympic Festival and the Australian Youth Olympic Festival . These festivals are very successful and serve as a model for the Youth Olympic Games. In addition, the IOC took over the patronage of the World Youth Games , which took place in Moscow in 1998 and were then replaced by the youth games.

The IOC sees the Youth Games as an opportunity to bring the world's best young athletes together, to bring them closer to the Olympic movement, to promote health and at the same time to promote participation in the Olympic Games. In addition, the youth version of the Olympic Games is to include not only sporting competitions but also education and cultural exchange, so that an educational and cultural program has become an essential part of the Youth Olympic Games.

According to the IOC, the youth games should be smaller than their adult counterparts - therefore the IOC decided that the youth summer games should only last 12 days and the youth winter games 10 days and that the national teams should not exceed 70 athletes .

Originally, no national flags and national anthems were to be used in the youth games, so that the competition between the countries takes a back seat. That couldn't prevail.

Requirements for the host cities

The scope of the Youth Olympic Games is smaller than that of the original Olympic Games, so that even smaller cities have the opportunity to host an Olympic multisport event.

No new sports facilities should be built for the event, with the exception of a few temporary facilities or a possible Olympic village, which will later be converted into a housing estate. All sports facilities must be in the same city.

According to the IOC's application documents, an athletics stadium with a capacity of 10,000 and a swimming stadium with a capacity of 2,500 (for the summer youth games) should be available in the city.

Furthermore, the IOC points out that the local public transport system of the venue does not need to be expanded for the youth games.

financing

Originally, the first Summer Youth Olympic Games were estimated to cost $ 30 million and the Winter Youth Olympic Games between $ 15 and 20 million. These costs did not include any infrastructure measures for competition venues. The IOC stipulated that the host city must bear the costs for the infrastructure and competition facilities - the IOC took over the travel costs, food and accommodation for athletes and supervisors.

The actual cost for Singapore in 2010 was approximately $ 386 million ($ 284 million), mostly for local businesses. International guests spent approximately 68.1 million Singapore dollars, adding approximately 41.9 million Singapore dollars to the Singapore economy.

The budget of 23 million euros for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck 2012 was kept.

The operational costs for the Winter Youth Games in Lausanne 2020 are forecast at around 48 million Swiss francs - which would mean a surplus of around 400,000 CHF.

Sports

1000 m sprint final of the boys in inline Speeskating in Buenos Aires 2018

Mixed relay in ski mountaineering in Lausanne 2020

Award ceremony for the girls in beach handball in Buenos Aires 2018

The sports program of the Youth Games is based on that of the Olympic Games - initially the sports of the Youth Games were identical to those of the Olympic Games, but with karate , roller sports , sport climbing and dance sports , sports were added in Buenos Aires in 2018 that had not yet been played out at this point in time were. At the Youth Winter Games in Lausanne 2020 , ski mountaineering was included as a sport in the Youth Olympic Program for the first time. On the other hand, tobogganing and bobsleighing should n't necessarily be part of the program in view of the low number of athletes worldwide and the necessary expensive infrastructure, but were included in the first two events.

The disciplines / competitions held in the youth games differ considerably from those in the traditional Olympic Games, as they are tailored to the interests of the young people. B. futsal instead of soccer or beach handball instead of handball . In addition, the Youth Games have developed into a field of experimentation for the IOC as to whether / how new disciplines / competitions fit into the Olympic program.

So was z. For example, rugby 7 was already Olympic at the youth games in Nanjing in 2014 - two years later, rugby was reintroduced into the Olympic program of the traditional Olympic Games in Rio . Karate and sport climbing celebrated their Olympic premiere at the youth games in Buenos Aires 2018 and are on the program for Tokyo 2020 .

At the youth games, mixed competitions were held from the beginning, which is now being introduced more and more at the Olympic Games. Overall, the number of disciplines and competitions in the youth games is lower than in the adult counterpart.

Another special feature of the youth games is that team competitions have teams made up of athletes from different national teams.

Education and culture program

The Education and Culture Program (CEP - Culture and Education Program) is an important part of the Youth Olympic Games and is not only aimed at young athletes from all over the world, but also at young people "on site".

The CEP is organized by the respective organizers of the youth games and can therefore differ from games to games. In Lillehammer 2016 , for example, there was a "Learn & Share" program that focused on the following 5 main topics:

• Your body and mind - well being and a healthy lifestyle
• Promote your career skills
• Your actions - social responsibility
• Your discoveries - cultural exchange
• Your stories - ways of expression

Workshops, activities, excursions and festivals were then organized on these topics. For example, "Body and Mind" was about the prevention of injuries, doping and the prevention of sexual assault in sport, but also how a " photo finish " works technically. On excursions you could visit a ski factory and a ski wax company. The workshops covered, among other things, the responsible use of social media and personal experiences with them.

In addition, there are three programs that are also part of the educational and cultural programs:

• Athlete Role Model (ARM) - former and current Olympians are available to the young athletes in a relaxed atmosphere for roundtables to report on their experiences. The ARMs are selected by the international sports federations - including in the past: the Japanese wrestler Kaori Icho , the Italian footballer Simone Farina and the Namibian athlete Frank Fredericks .
• Young Ambassadors - young athletes who are nominated by the respective NOKs, advertise in their environment for participation in the educational and cultural program.
• Young Reporters - offers young journalists and journalism students the opportunity to gain professional experience at the youth games and to take part in a training program. The continental umbrella organizations of the National Olympic Committees are responsible for selecting the participants.

List of Youth Olympic Games

summer

Olympics	year	venue	Nations	Attendees			Competitions		Remarks
				total	Boys	girl	discipline	sport
XXIX.	2010	Singapore	204	3,524	1,846	1,676	201	26th	First Youth Olympic Games. Competitions in badminton , basketball , archery , boxing , fencing , soccer , weightlifting , handball , hockey , judo , canoeing , athletics , modern pentathlon , cycling , riding , rhythmic gymnastics , wrestling , rowing , shooting , swimming , sailing , taekwondo , tennis , table tennis , trampoline , triathlon , gymnastics , volleyball and water jumping . The NOK Kuwait was excluded after the government of the country tried to exert political influence, and the Kuwaiti athletes were allowed to compete under the Olympic flag .
XXX.	2014	Nanjing	201	3,759	1,908	1,851	222	28	Instead of volleyball , beach volleyball is played. Golf and rugby are part of the Youth Games program for the first time.
XXXI.	2018	Buenos Aires	206	3,348	1,689	1,659	185	28	Handball and soccer are being replaced by beach handball and futsal . Breakdancing , inline speed skating , sport climbing , karate and acrobatics are new to the program .
-	2022	Dakar	will not be carried out						Due to the postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in mid-July 2020 that the Games would have been postponed to 2026, as without the new date there would have been five Olympic Games in three years.
XXXII.	2026	Dakar

winter

Olympics	year	venue	Nations	Attendees			Competitions		Remarks
				total	Boys	girl	discipline	sport
XXIX.	2012	innsbruck	70	1,059			63	15th	First Youth Olympic Winter Games. Competitions in biathlon , bobsleigh , curling , ice hockey , figure skating , speed skating , freestyle skiing , cross-country skiing , Nordic combined , tobogganing , short track , skeleton , alpine skiing , ski jumping and snowboarding .
XXX.	2016	Lillehammer	72	1,067			70	15th
XXXI.	2020	Lausanne	79	1,784			81	16	Ski mountaineering competitions are new to the program
XXXII.	2024	Gangwon

See also

• Eternal medal table of the Summer Youth Olympic Games
• Eternal medal table of the Winter Youth Olympic Games

Web links

Commons : Youth Olympic Games  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Youth Olympic Games website at the International Olympic Committee

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rainer Seele: Youth Games Comment: Olympic Peace. In: faz.net. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 27, 2010, accessed on February 4, 2011 . 
2. ^ Johann versus Jacques. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , November 16, 2009, accessed on July 24, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Factsheet Youth Olympics. International Olympic Committee , February 1, 2009, accessed July 28, 2020 . 
4. ^ Youth Olympic Games Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire (Section 7). (PDF; 854 kB) International Olympic Committee, accessed on November 23, 2009 (English). 
5. ^ Youth Olympic Games Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire. (pdf) International Olympic Committee, accessed on August 9, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Singapore 2010 - Youth Olympic Games - Games Impact Study. (PDF; 7.2 MB) International Olympic Committee, 2011, accessed on August 9, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Be part of it! Official report of the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games. (pdf) International Olympic Committee, accessed on August 12, 2020 . 
8. ^ Liam Morgan: Lausanne 2020 projecting budget surplus from Winter Youth Olympics. insidegames.biz, July 1, 2020, accessed August 9, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire Lausanne 2020. International Olympic Committee , accessed on August 8, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Chefs du missions Manual Lillehammerausanne 2016. doc.rero.ch, accessed on August 12, 2020 (English). 
11. ^ IOC announces the young reporters for the youth olympic games. International Olympic Committee, accessed August 13, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Youth Olympic Games postponed to 2026. In: focus.de . SID , July 15, 2020, accessed July 16, 2020 .