The European Olympic Committees (EOC) European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) Commission met on 8 November in Brussels, led by Chair Ms Liney Halldorsdottir.

Hosted at the Belgium National Olympic Committee (NOC) headquarters, the Commission reflected on a successful year with both a Winter EYOF in Fruili Venezia Giulia and Summer EYOF in Maribor giving thousands of Europe’s best young athletes the chance to compete in a multisport event.

EYOFs are open to athletes aged between 14 and 18 in Europe and as well as reports on the events held in 2023, the Commission looked ahead to the two 2025 editions, to be held in Bakuriani, Georgia and Skopje, North Macedonia.

There were discussions on how the reports from the EYOFs should be presented to EOC Members at the EOC General Assembly and a look at what the Commission believes EYOFs should achieve in the future, with the two scheduled events in both 2027 and 2029 on the agenda.

The possibility of a Safeguarding/Ethics Cross Committee focused on ensuring that all athletes are able to compete in a safe and fair environment was looked at by the Members and Ms Halldorsdottir, who is also an EOC Executive Committee Member, emphasised the importance of both the Commission and the opportunity to meet in person.

Ms Halldorsdottir said: “The EYOF Commission held a productive and insightful meeting in Brussels. While we always have productive meetings online, there is nothing comparable to meeting in-person and being able to take part in discussion face-to-face.  Thank you to the Belgian Olympic Committee for hosting us and the EOC for ensuring that it was possible.

“It has been another successful year with excellent events held in Italy and Slovenia, where the next generation of European athletes were able to compete in an international multisport event for the first time. This experience gives the athletes valuable life lessons which they can take into their adult lives, whether they enjoy careers in sport or outside of it.

“While looking forward to the EYOFs in Georgia and North Macedonia in two years’ time, it was important for the Members to discuss the ways in which we can make further improvements on this year’s success. Safeguarding is always at the forefront of our plans and we held an interesting discussion in this regard, while it was insightful to hear the Commission Members’ views on what we want the future EYOFs to achieve.”