Session 1: YOG 2018 and the future

IOC’s Antoine Goetschy presented on the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), talking about the importance of encouraging participating in sport and how central YOG is to that goal. It helps shape the future of sport. The individual International Federations have the opportunity to decide what discipline they want to include and it does not have to be an Olympic discipline. The YOG offers the International Federations the chance to adapt to local audiences and explore future formats. The YOG is massively popular on social media so we encourage everyone to follow the YOG equestrian discipline Jumping, which is open to 30 athletes from 30 nations, on the FEI social media platforms.

“We are all here because we believe that competitive sport is great for young people, we are all convinced. It’s performing.  We are teaching them to perform, to be committed, to take risks, to set their goals. We know what is good for young people. When you start to know what young people want, it’s the definition of you being old”.
“There is a massive drop in competitive sport when they grow up, when they stop playing. And why do they stop? They need to have a family, they need to study, they start to smoke and party and drink and they play video games”.
“They always look for challenges and improving themselves, and doing better and learn something. All this is fantastic in sport. They are looking for fun, new skills, they look for purpose and new experiences and challenges”.
“Organised sport is being challenged. If young people sometimes quit sport, it’s not because they quit the sport, it’s because they quit sport the way we organise it”.
The Youth Olympic Games aim to bring together talented young athletes aged 15 to 18 from around the world. Held every four years, the first edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010, which included equestrian sport (Jumping) on the programme, featured over 3,500 athletes and was held over a 12-day period. The next Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Buenos Aires in October 2018. For more on BuenosAires2018, click here.
What makes the Youth Olympic Games so unique is the Culture and Education Programme (CEP) which runs alongside the sports fixtures and is based around the following five themes: Olympism, Social Responsibility, Skills Development, Expression and Well-being and Healthy Lifestyles. These are valuable tools for the athletes of tomorrow and are very much an integral part of the Youth Olympic Games model.
In this session, IOC experts will present plans for the future of the Youth Olympic Games. A discussion with the NFs will follow.