The number of athletes competing at this year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne is 1,872, up 40 per cent on the previous edition in Lillehammer in 2016.
Lausanne 2020’s organisers announced a slew of facts and figures about the event yesterday, including:
- it will be the first Winter Youth Olympics with equal numbers of female and male athletes
- the 79 National Olympic Committees taking part is the most ever, and eight more than 2016
- 12 NOCs are taking part in the Winter Youth Olympics for the first time – Albania, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong Kong (China), Kosovo, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Trinidad & Tobago
- the 10 countries with the largest athletes delegations are: Switzerland (112), Russia (107), US (96), Germany (96), Canada (81), Czech Republic (77), Japan (74), Italy (69), Austria (64) and France (61).
Lausanne 2020 starts tomorrow, January 9, and runs until January 22.
The games feature five new events – Women’s Nordic Combined (Individual Normal Hill/4km) skiing, Women’s Doubles Luge, Ice Hockey Mixed NOC 3×3 Tournament, Freeski Big Air, Snowboard Big Air – and one new sport – ski mountaineering.
The IOC yesterday outlined details of media coverage of the event, which will include:
- 300 hours of coverage on global digital platform The Olympic Channel, including live and on-demand event streaming, a 24-7 Youth Olympic Games Channel, daily highlights and news, a daily ‘Olympic Channel Live Show’ on Facebook and Twitter, and daily podcasts.
- Coverage by rights-holding broadcast partners in 189 territories, up from 89 for Lillehammer 2016, including 4,000 hours of coverage via digital platforms.
- A digital sticker pack featuring the event mascot Yodli, available for use on Instagram and Snapchat.