The best young European athletes led the way at the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Gangwon 2024 as European National Olympic Committees (NOC) won 150 of the 243 medals available in the Republic of Korea.
More than 1800 athletes aged 14-18 competed in 15 different disciplines between 19 January and 1 February in the fourth edition of the Winter YOG, held in the same location as the Olympic Winter Games 2018.
Thanks to the outstanding performances of athletes from across the European NOCs, Europe cemented its spot as the most successful continent in the Olympic Movement with 21 of the 44 European countries competing seeing athletes win medals, and 15 European NOCs going home with a gold.
Italy, who hosted the 2023 Winter Youth Olympic Festival, topped the medal table with 11 golds and 18 medals in total, while Germany won the most medals of any European country with 20, including nine golds, which was just one behind the United States of America’s total.
Individually, four European athletes will return home with three gold medals. In the speed skating, Angel Daleman (Netherlands) and Finn Sonnekalb (Germany) both enjoyed a clean sweep of the individual medals, while Daleman also won a bronze medal in the mixed relay.
Both athletes are just 16 years old and Daleman admitted that it had been an incredible learning experience to participate in Gangwon.
She said: “I have learned a lot. There were some races I crashed (in) with the short track. I was really upset about those but got myself together and did very well in long track with the golds. It was ups and downs.”
“I think it’s to believe in yourself. Because like you see, it’s hard. There’s a lot of competitions. You get tired. But the way I picked myself up after crashes (in short track), is something I’m happy about.”
Frenchman Antonin Guy, who competed at the Winter EYOF in Fruili Venezia Giulia one year ago, won both the 12.5km and 7.5km individual events, as well as the single mixed relay, while in the alpine skiing, Maja Warschitz won two individual and one team gold.
Eight gold medallists from the 2023 Winter EYOF competed in Gangwon with three of them, Dominic Major, Hanna Mazur and Romain Allemand all winning bronze medals in Korea.
The Winter YOG also witnessed the International Olympic Committee and the Local Organising Committee build on some of the innovative technological advancements that the European Olympic Committees (EOC) brought in for the European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023.
As well as a metaverse allowing fans greater opportunities to engage with the Games, the Olympic Broadcasting Services is testing new technology in Gangwon, including automatic highlight generation to help with social media content distribution. In Krakow, the EOC’s highlight clipping service allowed athletes, European Federations and National Olympic Committees to download clips directly from the Games’ app to post on their feeds.
Photo: OIS/Jonathan Nackstrand. Handout image supplied by OIS/IOC
