A new box has been ticked by the organizers of the 2024 Youth Winter Games in Gangwon, South Korea (January 19 to February 1). With just over three months to go before the event, the Youth Olympic Flame was lit on Tuesday, October 3, on the historic site of the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. Lit by the sun’s rays collected in a parabolic mirror, the torch was handed over to its first torchbearer, Belli Maria, a 17-year-old cross-country skier and biathlete from Florina, Greece. The flame will now leave Greece for South Korea. It is due to arrive in Seoul on October 8, where it will be welcomed by the Gangwon 2024 ambassadors. What’s next? A special celebration is planned for October 11, in Seoul City Hall Square, to mark 100 days to the YOG. The torch relay will then pass through 23 cities and counties across the country, before reaching Gangwon province on November 7. From then on, the flame will pass through 18 cities in the province, until January 19, 2024, the date of the opening ceremony of the Gangwon 2024 YOG Winter Games.
