The Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) saw athletes from four National Olympic Committees (NOCs) set new records as they became the first in their countries’ histories to win a Winter YOG medal. 

All the NOCs will be hoping success in Korea can be a springboard for more.

 
“I have high hopes this is the first of many for Brazil because we have extremely high potential for snow sports and any sport at all,” Zion says. “I hope this can be a huge catalyst for sports in general in Brazil.”

This is a sentiment shared by others who enjoyed similar experiences in Korea. 

“This achievement serves as a catalyst, not only for Muhammed's promising career but also for fostering a deeper interest in winter sports among our youth. It's a pivotal moment that will inspire the next generation to embrace winter sports, contributing to the sustained development and success of Türkiye in this field.”

For Tunisia too, they are hoping to tap into the opportunity that Jonathan Lourimi’s silver in the monobob presents. 

Tunisia will now turn its attention to drawing up a national strategy for the development of winter sports, Boussayene explains. For Gundogan and the TOC, the hope one day is medals at the Winter Games but most important is to “cultivate a society deeply integrated with Olympic values.” In Thailand they are looking to build greater awareness “stressing skills, rules, regulations and organizing competitions as needed at the level of nationwide within the country.” While for athlete, Zion, the future target is simple: Milano-Cortina 2026.

Mrs. Gunilla Lindberg

ANOC Secretary General Gunilla Lindberg Chaired the IOC Coordination Commission for the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018 and paid many visits to the Province over seven years. Mrs Lindberg was also a member of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games.

1 - WHAT HAVE THE GAMES MENT TO THIS REGION IN KOREA AND WHAT DIFFERENCES CAN YOU SEE FROM YOUR FIRST VISIT TO PYEONGCHANG?

My first visit was in 2011 and at that time PyeongChang and the province of Gangwon was mostly a big agriculture area with potato fields, cornfields and an important fishing industry. The Games provided completely new infrastructure with highways to the capital, Seoul, and a railway that makes it possible for the people of Seoul to enjoy the beautiful skiing facilities travelling easily by train.
 
The motto for the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Grow Together, Shine Forever, is a good example of how international events can bring education and culture of other countries to new places in the world.
 
The legacy of the Games has of course also been significant with hundreds of thousands new tourists not only during the winter but also through the rest of the year. New working opportunities and new possibilities for the youth of Gangwon have been significant. The Korean NOC also has for many years implemented a Dream Program for young people from foreign countries where winter sport does not really exist.  These groups of people have had the opportunities to experience different kind of winter sports and some of them are now here as participants in the YOG.

2 - HOW DO YOU SEE THE FACT THAT THE YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES ARE TAKING PLACE IN A HOST CITY FOR THE OLYMPIC GAMES?

3 - IS THIS THE FIRST CITY THAT HAS HOST YOUTH GAMES IN OLYMPIC VENUES?

Actually not – the first Youth Olympic Winter Games took place in the City of Innsbruck in Austria in 2012. Innsbruck hosted the Olympic Winter Games both in 1964 and in 1976. I think this is a very good way to keep the Olympic Flame burning and to make use of what the Games has brought to the city.

4 - HOW DO YOU FEEL AS A PERSON COMING BACK HERE AFTER MANY VISITS IN THE PREPARATION OF BOTH THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES IN 2018 AND THE YOUTH GAMES IN 2024?

For me this area has almost become a second home. I have got friends for life and wonderful memories of a beautiful country with a very interesting culture and history and fantastic food and nature. I know that many of the young people competing here during these weeks will return home with great memories and many of them will have the opportunity to come back and enjoy new friends and culture.

Over 6500 photos were taken by the four programme photographers, capturing approximately 1203 athletes in competition. Photos were available to the participating NOCs through the IOC’s Olympic Information Service (OIS) platform.
 
The programme built on the inaugural NOC Photo Project which ANOC delivered during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. Following the success of the project, ANOC partnered with the IOC to expand it further with more photographers and almost twice as many photos taken in Gangwon compared to Beijing.

The programme received very positive feedback from NOCs who were able to use the images to enhance their digital and social media output and better engage with their fans.

- REPLAY -

ANOC SOCIAL MEDIA – 8TH WEBINAR (NOC DATA MANAGEMENT)

The topic of the webinar is how a newly developed project tool has simplified games preparations for NOC Denmark and significantly reduced the workload for the games operations team. The system, Games Operations Administration Tool (GOAT), covers areas like games preparation, long list and short list information, management of team uniform process and accreditation management. The webinar will focus on showing you the key elements of the tools and functions in action.