The immense shadow of the Paris 2024 Games leaves them little light, but the Olympic year begins in South Korea with the fourth edition of the Winter Youth Games, the first in history organized on the Asian continent. A little less than 200 days before the French meeting, Gangwon 2024 will invite from January 19 (until February 1) 1900 young winter sports hopefuls to slip into the scenery of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games .
For the IOC, the 2024 Youth Games promise to be a godsend. Proof that heritage is not just a communicator or political concept, but a reality. In Gangwon, South Korea will essentially reuse the sites built for PyeongChang 2018. They have not aged a bit.
FrancsJeux asked Jin Jong-oh, the former co-president of the organizing committee, who went down in history as the first athlete to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in shooting, at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 Replaced last November by Choi Jong-gu at the head of Gangwon 2024, the South Korean is now in charge of promoting the event and relations with athletes.
FrancsJeux : What is your priority in the final stretch before the event?
Jin Jong-oh : It is double. In the final stretch before the opening of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games, our efforts are focused on securing all operational aspects of the event. This should allow us to remain within our objectives of an edition of the Youth Games that is perfectly safe for the athletes, efficient and at reduced costs. We want young competitors to be able to express themselves on the field in the best performance conditions, but also to enjoy an atmosphere of friendship and solidarity. At the same time, we are finalizing the program of cultural activities and shows, for the athletes, but also for their families and for the spectators.
Almost six years after the end of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games, what state are the competition venues in?
For Gangwon 2024, we will use nine competition venues. Seven of them were used at the Winter Games in 2018. I think it can be said that the Youth Games fit perfectly into the legacy of PyeongChang 2018. The venues are in perfect working order as they have been regularly maintained and even modernized over the last six years.
Gangwon 2024 will be the first edition of the Youth Games organized on the same sites less than ten years after the Olympic Games. Should we expect to experience a reduced format edition of the Winter Games?
On a purely sporting level, there is not a big difference between PyeongChang 2018 and Gangwon 2024. The venues are almost the same, the setting will be familiar to those who have experienced PyeongChang. But aside from the competitions, the two events differ. For the Youth Games, we have built an entire cultural program, with local activities and sporting and educational experiences. The key word of Gangwon 2024 remains youth. We tried to understand what young people expected, to offer them an Olympic event that they could make the most of.
How does the ticket office work?
It began on November 11, at 11:11 a.m. Korean time. With the exception of the opening ceremony, all events are free to access. For some sites, it is necessary to have a ticket, which people can reserve online or obtain on site. But for others, access is completely free. For the opening ceremony, Friday January 19, the only session where tickets will be paid, the most expensive tickets are offered at 100.000 Korean won, or around 70 euros.
