With only a few hours to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Baku 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival, everything is in place for an impressive week of sport featuring the continent’s best young athletes from 14 to 18 years old.
“Baku will once again host a big international event. All the competition venues, the Athletes’ Village and the city in general are ready for the event,” said Azerbaijan Minister of Youth and Sport Azad Rahimov at the first press conference of the Games. “We are sure that the seven days of competitions involving 48 countries will leave great memories for sport fans, journalists, and the athletes themselves.”
Some 2,700 athletes will compete in ten sports at Baku 2019, supported by 1,200 team officials and 2,500 volunteers. The competition will be covered by 345 media representatives from 20 countries as well as broadcast live on the EOC Channel.
The ten sports are athletics, basketball, cycling, gymnastics artistic, handball, judo, swimming, tennis, volleyball and – for the first time at an EYOF – wrestling.
European Olympic Committees (EOC) President Janez Kocijančič expressed his confidence that the 15th edition of the summer EYOF was in good hands in Baku. “This EYOF in Baku is the biggest of the last three EYOFs, with more almost 4,000 athletes and officials,” he said. “And we are confident that they will be excellently organised as we are already accustomed to this with the European Games here four years ago and the Islamic Solidarity Games in between.”
Both President Kocijančič and EOC Coordination Commission Chair Djordje Višacki emphasised the importance of the EYOF for the development of the young athletes and maintaining Europe’s leading standing in world sport. The EOC first organised the EYOF in 1991 and Europe remains the only continent to host such a major multi-sport event for its youth.
“This is the first step in the Olympic journey for most of the athletes,” said Višacki. “Some of them will one day become Olympic Champions. Many more of them will not make it to the Olympic Games. Their Olympic experience will be tied to everything they experience in Baku and everything that the local organising committee and the EOC prepared for them. I believe we have created together a very nice platform for these athletes to carry this great experience of Baku and Azerbaijan into their Olympic and life journeys.”
Journalists attending the press conference also learned that tickets for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies are sold out, while free tickets for all competitions are being quickly snapped up by local sports fans.
Earlier today, the first Chefs de Mission meeting was held at the Athletes’ Village, with representatives from all 48 participating National Olympic Committees in attendance.
