The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) distinguish themselves from other youth sports events as they also integrate a unique Culture and Education Programme (CEP), based around five main themes: Olympism, social responsibility, skills development, expression and well-being and healthy lifestyles.

Away from the field of play and through a variety of fun and interactive activities, workshops and team-building exercises, the CEP gives the participating athletes the opportunity to learn about the Olympic values, explore other cultures and develop the skills to become true ambassadors of their sport.

The CEP at Lausanne 2020 will take place at all the venues with its heart at the Dorigny campus, where the University of Lausanne and several other institutions are located.

The Organising Committee also intends to make use of local schools to ensure a high-level standard overall. 

The CEP at Lillehammer 2016 was widely praised, with thousands attending daily concerts and events in Sjogg Park throughout the duration of the event.

Among the features was an outdoor cinema, an ice slide and Norway's first-ever igloo disco.

Lausanne 2020 chief executive Ian Logan says the Olympic capital's ambition is to continue to incorporate culture and education into the YOG. 

"We will renew this, compete, learn and share," he told insidethegames.

"We will really go on this, the culture and education.

"In Lausanne, we are so fortunate to have so many schools, music schools, opera or comedian schools.

"We will use all of those, we will work with museums as well and will have a very good youth programme for culture.

"In Lausanne, a big specialty we have here is the ski area and different sites are that it is not only a ski slope or sports resorts.

"When you go to Les Diablerets it is not just a ski slope, it is a town, there is life there.

"We will activate the towns for the whole Games, not only during the events."

Slovakia's Danka Barteková, the chairperson of the International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission for Lausanne 2020, highlighted how the cultural elements are key to drawing more attention to the YOG from across the host country.

"It is very important to realise that the Youth Olympic Games is not only about sport, but is a concept of connecting sport, culture and education," she told insidethegames.

"This is very important.

"I am sure Lausanne realises that and will have a Games which will really leave a great legacy in these three areas.

"All of the parts of the Games should be on the same level and these are the means to attract the attention of the local, regional and national youth.

"Attract them in, share the values, share the culture and educate them."

Volunteering at Lausanne 2020

Around 2,500 volunteers will be on duty during the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

The registration period will run through to July 2019, when an online platform will be opened on the Organising Committee's website.

Prior to this, a major media campaign will be launched to attract volunteers both young and old.

Known as "Games-makers", they will perform a wide range of duties relating to national team delegations, the public, the media and the competition sites.

"After they have applied and been selected, we ask them which duties and tasks they want to do," Cédric Destraz, the head of Lausanne 2020's volunteer programme, said.

"We then run a series of training courses on things like welcoming people and hospitality.

"Then there are specific training sessions at each site, like how to groom a run and how to welcome athletes and guests.

"In short, volunteers do lots of different things.

"The ones who've already been accepted know that they will be there at the YOG."

Though the application process will be open to prospective volunteers from all over the world, an initial selection phase was conducted at local level.

It is hoped the work of the volunteers at the third Winter YOG will leave an important legacy.

"Through their employers and public institutions, they will be able to demonstrate the value of the work they have done throughout the YOG," Destraz said.

"No volunteers means no Games, as simple as that.

"They bring skills that add value to any event and in every field, such as welcoming people, assisting National Olympic Committees and the media, interpreting, working at the uniform centre, and helping out with accreditations.

"It's a unique experience.

"The YOG are a wonderful celebration of sport, and there's only one thing for prospective volunteers to do, which is to sign up in summer 2019.

"If you end up volunteering at the YOG in Lausanne, then you might get involved at other sporting events.

"Everyone should take the opportunity to experience the Youth Olympic Games."

Destraz claims it is essential to get young people involved in volunteering, but that the not-so-young cannot be forgotten either.

"Different generations have to work together if all the tasks undertaken by volunteers at this YOG edition are to be carried out successfully," he said.

"It goes without saying that it's very rewarding to be able to pass the experience of older people on to youngsters."

Volunteer leaders are already in place.

They run the local volunteer groups and organise them in their entirety, having previously taken a two-stage training course.

The first part of the course offers an introduction to the YOG, while the second is more operational, looking at things like managing a team and how to organise events promoting the Games.

The volunteers promote the YOG to other volunteers.

Volunteer leaders can acquire skills not otherwise available to them, giving them attributes they can put to use in the professional world.

There are around 10 leaders aged between 20 and 25 who are completely involved in the ongoing event promotion phase.

"There's a community of around 50 volunteers at the moment, but it's growing with every passing week, because they're enjoying a rewarding experience and are passing the message on to their friends, parents and families," Destraz added.

"That know-how and those social skills are being transferred from friend to friend and from generation to generation.

"The volunteer community is growing and it's going to be big and strong from January 9 to 22, 2020."

Back to top

International Volunteer Day

On December 5, 2018, Lausanne 2020 celebrated International Volunteer Day.

The Organising Committee made use of the occasion to thank the many volunteers who are already working alongside it for the success of the 2020 Winter YOG.

They are providing assistance in a number of ways, including co-ordinating or helping during promotional events and translating the Lausanne 2020 website.

Lausanne 2020 communicates daily in the three Swiss national languages as well as in English and Spanish.

"This requires quite a lot of translating, splendidly carried out by close to 30 people who take to heart the success of Lausanne 2020," Lise Cordey, who is in charge of volunteer translating, said.

Melissa Pisino, a French-Italian bilingual who studies translation at the University of Geneva, is a member of the project.

"Lausanne 2020 is the perfect occasion to combine my passion for translating and sports, and to contribute to this extraordinary event that upholds worthy values and that will leave its mark on the lives of a new generation of athletes," she said.

"It’s a rewarding experience that will be of use to me in the future."

Yodli, a cross between a cow, dog and goat, was unveiled as the mascot for Lausanne 2020 on January 8, 2019. 

Yodli was officially revealed to the crowd prior to a Swiss National Hockey League match between Lausanne Hockey Club and HC Davos on the eve of the one-year-to-go milestone until the opening of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach and Virginie Faivre, who replaced the late Patrick Baumann as head of the Lausanne 2020 Organising Committee, were among those in attendance.

The yodel singing technique, popular in Switzerland and in areas of France, was the inspiration for the name of the mascot.

Yodli is a cross between a cow, goat and the St Bernard breed of dog, all of which are commonly found in the Swiss mountains.

The design and name of the mascot were chosen by students from the Lausanne-based Romande School of Arts and Communications.

Around 140 students from the school took part in the process and presented their ideas to Lausanne 2020, the IOC and the Olympic Museum.

They took inspiration from Yoggl and Sjogg, the mascots of the first two editions of the Winter YOG in Innsbruck in 2012 and Lillehammer in 2016 respectively.

Yodli is said to have been born and raised in the Swiss mountains, areas of which will play host to sporting events when the Olympic capital hosts the 2020 Winter YOG. 

Snowboarding is listed as Yodli's favourite sport, while it is claimed the multiple origins of the mascot "embody the diversity of the Youth Olympic Games participants".

The concept at the heart of the Lausanne 2020 project is an edition of the Winter YOG "for young people, by young people, with young people".

Creating a strong legacy is seen as a key part of this.

Lausanne legacy

Sporting legacy

Educational legacy

Legacy at the heart of Lausanne's 2020 vision

×

Lausanne legacy

The 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will aim to leave a positive legacy for the city of Lausanne, the canton of Vaud and Swiss sport generally.

One of the key highlights of Lausanne 2020's heritage is the accelerated construction of the student accommodation Vortex, which will house the Youth Olympic Village during the Winter YOG. 

This building will subsequently accommodate 1,200 university students and academic guests, meeting a long-time community need.

You can follow the development of the Vortex live by viewing the construction site webcam here.

×

Sporting legacy

Another construction project that will become a reality thanks to the Winter YOG is the Centre Sportif de Malley SA, which encompasses several sports facilities, one of which is a 9,700-capacity ice rink that will be accessible to young athletes. 

This project solves the problem of a genuine lack of sports infrastructure in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

You can follow the development of the Centre Sportif de Malley SA live, or watch a sped-up version of all the construction work so far, by viewing the construction site webcams here.

Besides these two major construction schemes, Lausanne 2020 will support the following projects:

- The creation of training centres for the future athletes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland

- An agreement with the French Department of Jura for the free use of sports facilities for 20 years

- Support for creating a new regional discipline - short track

- Local training on the sports management of major events

- Development of a new generation of sports managers

- Tangible projects underway to promote winter sports for everyone

×

Educational legacy

Lausanne 2020's educational legacy will be a combination of several elements. 

Firstly, there are the strong partnerships with the University of Lausanne, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and the Swiss Hotel Management School in Lausanne. 

Secondly is the identification and development of local young people's existing skills. 

And thirdly is the creation of new expertise within the current population. 

To make this happen, an opportunity has been given to young people to involve themselves and take on organisational responsibilities in the Winter YOG.

These learned skills will then be available for organising future international sports events that will continue to grow sustainably within the region.

It is hoped this legacy will even reach future generations, thanks to the connections established with children in local schools.

×

Legacy at the heart of Lausanne's 2020 vision

"Engaging in a project of this scale for just two weeks in 2020 is not the only goal we're hoping to achieve," Olivier Delapierre, the Local Organising Committee's head of public relations and engagement, said.

"You can see that with the new ice rink in Malley, Lausanne, and the Olympic Village, a large circular building called the 'Vortex', whose primary function is to provide a facility for our city's students, a function that we have promoted.

"The athletes competing at the YOG will be the first to use it.

"There are legacies in terms of youth, the development of expertise, and the creation of synergies between the various institutions…[as well as] strong sporting legacies in terms of skills and the renovation of infrastructure in the Vaud Alps and the French Jura.

"There's a cross-border agreement between the French department of Jura and Switzerland's Nordic teams, who for the next 20 years can use the refurbished facilities in Prémanon, including the Stade des Tuffes, a world-class ski jumping, cross-country skiing and biathlon venue. 

"Lausanne's revamped ice rink will be the home of the Lausanne Hockey Club, which plays in the Swiss top flight and will now have the opportunity to develop and progress. 

"It will also host the 2020 World Championships.  

"The YOG have helped bring the ice rink's renovation along more quickly."

There are many other examples of this drive for a strong legacy, including Les Diablerets, where the Alpine skiing events will be held.

Thanks to the Winter YOG, the refurbishment of the ski lifts has been sped up and the mountain will be open all year round. 

An old-fashioned chairlift has been replaced by cabins, and the slalom, giant and super-G piste has been approved by the International Ski Federation and can now host international competitions.

The ski and snowboard facilities in Leysin have also been upgraded, putting the Vaud Alps resort back on the world freestyle map, and the speed skating events will be held outdoors, on an oval situated on a frozen lake in St Moritz. 

"We're going back to the roots of the sport, and that opens up opportunities," Delapierre added.

History and evolution of Jacques Rogge’s vision

The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) were a personal project of former International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge in his mission to fight obesity and encourage young people to take part in sports.

Rogge reported to members on the project during the 2007 IOC Session in Guatemala.

"The change in society illustrated by an increase in obesity, a decline in sports participation especially amongst young people," he told the IOC Session.

Rogge was also concerned by a drop in school sport and the disappearance of playing fields in inner cities.

He said the YOG would "be complementary to the Olympic Games".

For some, the Games would be a stepping stone to the Olympics but, according to Rogge, "the YOG would also serve simply to help the athletes who did not make that step to be better human beings".

When the vote was taken, it was approved "unanimously" by a show of hands.

Back to top

Singapore 2010

Ng Ser Miang, the IOC member in Singapore, took charge of the Organising Committee for the inaugural Summer YOG in Singapore and Sergey Bubka, the pole vault champion from Ukraine, led the IOC's Coordination Commission. 

As with the earlier Youth Olympic festivals, each team was limited in size. 

This meant each National Olympic Committee had to carefully select the make-up of their team.

A cultural education programme included seminars, while among the athlete role models were Russians Yelena Isinbayeva and Alexander Popov, Bubka and New Zealand's Barbara Kendall. 

"At Chat with the Champions", young athletes were able to tap into the knowledge of athletes who had already achieved so much. 

The competing teams were all accommodated at Singapore University.

For Singapore, the YOG represented the closest the country will realistically come to hosting the Olympic Games. 

Although no big venues were built, the boat was still pushed out to a certain extent and the Ceremonies were impressive. 

The social media phenomenon Twitter was in its infancy but still put to good use in Singapore, as young volunteers at the sailing competitions tweeted reports on the progress of races in windsurfing and byte, a non-Olympic dinghy class which had been chosen for the YOG.

Back to top

Innsbruck 2012

The inaugural edition of the Winter YOG in 2012 saw hosts Innsbruck, Austria’s fifth largest city and the capital of the Federal State of Tyrol, put its facilities for the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976 to good use.

It became the first city to host three Winter Olympic events. 

Held from January 13 to 22, the event attracted 1,022 athletes from 69 countries competing in 63 events.

Its cultural and education programme provided participants with insights into the various aspects that make up the life of an elite athlete, while high-profile Olympians and young ambassadors offered them guidance and advice, and stressed the importance of making the most of their YOG experiences.

In the sporting arena, Innsbruck 2012 marked the introduction of several new events, some of which would later be promoted to the Winter Olympics at Sochi 2014, such as the mixed relay in the biathlon, the mixed team relay in the luge, and men’s and women’s halfpipe skiing.

The YOG also became the testing ground for some competitions, like the ice hockey individual skills challenge, and innovative mixed National Olympic Committee team events in figure skating and short track speed skating.

Many athletes who made their names at Innsbruck 2012 are now regarded as major international stars in their respective disciplines.

Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova, who won the women’s singles silver medal at Innsbruck 2012, was crowned Olympic champion at Sochi 2014.

Another example of an athlete going onto bigger and better things is Japanese ski jumper Sara Takanashi, the women’s individual gold medallist at Innsbruck 2012, who is now the proud owner of five World Championship medals, including mixed team normal hill gold from 2013, and the normal hill individual Olympic bronze medal from Pyeongchang 2018.

Back to top

Nanjing 2014

The first Youth Olympics of Rogge's successor, Thomas Bach, came in 2014 in Chinese city Nanjing, which was chosen ahead of Poznań in Poland.

Nanjing 2014 and the IOC claimed social media was a crucial contributory factor to the success of the event.

Organisers stated that "from the earliest stages, social media has been a key ingredient of the team's promotion plan for the Games".

In particular, interest was generated by the hashtag #YOGselfie, which went viral on social media following Bach's request during the Opening Ceremony for "as many as possible" to be taken.

On the first day alone, there were 450 million Sina Weibo posts concerning news and topics related to the Games, with selfies a major component of this success.

The Sina Weibo platform had more than 600 million views of the Youth Olympics-related content and 620,000 microblog posts involving YOG discussion.

Page views on overseas social media networks increased throughout the Games and the number of followers on the Organising Committee's Facebook and Twitter accounts exceeded 420,000 and 24,000 respectively.

The majority of the 35 venues used during Nanjing 2014 were first established ahead of the 2005 National Games in order to adhere to IOC regulations regarding the YOG.

These facilities have continued to be used by the public in the wake of the event.

Only the Youth Olympic Village, Sports Lab and Youth Olympic Sports Park were newly constructed prior to the Games.

The Sports Lab was a venue designed to host the four demonstration sports at the Games - wushu, sport climbing, skateboarding and roller skating - with this continuing to function as it had during the event.

The Sports Park was home to beach volleyball, hockey, rugby sevens and BMX during the Games and has become a sport facility open to the public.

Back to top

Lillehammer 2016

Innsbruck 2012’s example of re-using existing venues was followed in 2016 by Lillehammer, the highly-praised hosts of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

The education programme still featured but was transformed into "Learn and Share".

Athlete role models were on hand and workshops on all aspects of preparation were offered.

These zones also had substantial information on doping available.

In addition to Lillehammer, sports were contested in Hamar, Gjøvik and Øyer.

A total of 1,100 athletes from 71 countries competed in 70 events from February 12 to 21.

Switzerland’s Aline Danioth and Norway’s Marthe Krakstad Johansen stood out as the most decorated of them all.

Danioth medalled in every individual women’s Alpine skiing event, taking home golds in combined and slalom along with bronzes in super-G and giant slalom.

Johansen, meanwhile, made it to the podium in every single biathlon event, starting with silver medals in the sprint, pursuit and single mixed relay and finishing with gold in the mixed relay.

Back to top

Buenos Aires 2018

Buenos Aires 2018 was the first Summer YOG held outside of Asia and the first YOG for either summer or winter held outside Eurasia. 

The IOC Executive Board agreed to add dance sport, karate, roller sports and sport climbing to the sports programme as well as many new disciplines and events such as BMX freestyle, kiteboarding, beach handball, futsal and acrobatic gymnastics. 

It was claimed the new sports reflected the IOC's and Buenos Aires 2018's shared goal of building youth engagement, and thus represented a mix of emerging, universal and urban sports with a significant youth appeal. 

While dance sport was a completely new event to the Olympic programme, karate and sport climbing served as a teaser of what is to come at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

During the Closing Ceremony of Buenos Aires 2018, the Olympic Flag was passed to Senegal's capital Dakar, host of the next Summer YOG in 2022.

Dakar Mayor Soham El Wardini received the flag alongside a host of athletes from Argentina and Senegal during the handover ceremony.

Bach praised organisers for staging a "really fantastic Youth Olympic Games" and has since said he was hopeful the 2020 Winter YOG in Lausanne could build on the success of Buenos Aires 2018. 

He pointed to Lausanne 2020 having an equal number of men and women competing and the two-wave arrival system - where competitors participating in the first week of events will attend the Opening Ceremony before making way for those competing in the second half of the Games - as examples of how this could be achieved.