You'll have to get used to it: the Winter Games can now do without the essentials. To exist, they no longer need a snowy setting where the white of the snowflakes dominates. Friday, January 19, the city of Gangneung woke up to light rain, a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Games (January 19 to February 1). The thermometer showed 2° at lunchtime. Wintery, sure, but more gray than white.
Launched in 2012 in Innsbruck, Austria, organized four years later in Lillehammer, then in Lausanne in 2020, the Winter YOG had until then only known Europe. In Gangwon, they are taking their first trip to Asia, to the grounds of the PyeongChang 2018 Games.
Same place, same decor. But a more good-natured atmosphere. “ Legacy in action », summarized Thomas Bach, IOC President, Wednesday morning during his visit to the athletes' village. The expression is not misused: seven of the nine competition venues were used six years earlier for the Winter Games.
The event is announced “ grandiose”, promised Christophe Dubi, the director of the Olympic Games at the IOC. A springboard to glory for a whole generation of young snow and ice hopefuls, aged 14 to 18. At the last count, there are nearly 1900 participants, coming from 79 countries.
What should be remembered?
First thing: winter sports are gaining ground. Five countries, two of them African, are making their Winter YOG debut: Algeria, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. For the first time in history, Tunisia is present in the bobsleigh event, with three competitors, two girls and one boy. It owes this to a development program proposed and financed by South Korea via the PyeongChang 2018 foundation.
Another lesson: innovation. Faithful to its desire to use the YOG as a laboratory, the IOC is launching new events at Gangwon 2024 in short track (1500 m), cross-country skiing (mixed relay), and Nordic combined (mixed teams). But the Olympic body abandoned its idea, tested during previous editions, of presenting events where athletes from different countries are mixed. In Gangwon, all mixed teams wear the same colors.
Also worth remembering is the success of the ticket office. With the exception of the opening ceremony, this Friday January 19 at the Gangneung oval, the events are free to access, but reserved for ticket holders. The organizers announced it on Thursday, the day before the start: more than 350.000 tickets had been reserved forty-eight hours before the curtain rose.
In detail, the ice disciplines prove to be the most sought after by the South Korean public. Hockey leads the way (84.825 tickets), ahead of curling (60), biathlon (527), luge (11), bobsleigh (106), and skeleton (4).
Finally, history will record that the Gangwon 2024 Winter YOG will have innovated by offering, for the first time, an Olympic metaverse. A unique virtual world, meant to offer fans around the world “ a variety of interactive experiences ».
Set to music with the collaboration of the organizing committee and local and national authorities, it allows you to visit the competition sites, the athletes' village and four tourist sites in the region, or to challenge each other on mini-games online dedicated to ski jumping, bobsleigh and curling. A dive into the future? For the IOC, the answer is in no doubt.
