YOG 2020 in the living room of the IOC

Lausanne (RWH) Lausanne will host the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games. Thus, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a guest in its own living room, the Olympic umbrella organization resides in the 144,000-inhabitant metropolis of the Swiss canton of Vaud. Since April 15, 1915 the IOC is located in Lausanne.

From January 9 to 22, 2020, Lausanne will be the first Winter Youth Games (YOG) on equal terms with both 940 male and female athletes from over 70 nations. There is a maximum of 100 participants in luge. The competitions take place on the Olympia Bob Run St. Moritz-Celerina in Upper Engadine. Lausanne is the third venue of the Winter Youth Olympic Games following Innsbruck (2012) and Lillehammer (2016).

Olympic champion Tatjana Hüfner from Germany was selected to be an Athlete Role Model (ARM) the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. Tatjana Hüfner was luge World Champion in women’s singles six times and won Olympic gold (2010), silver (2014), and bronze (2006). Gregory Carigiet from Switzerland was also chosen as an ARM.

In luge, both 20 women and men, and 15 women’s and men’s doubles pairs may participate in the five luge competitions. Women’s doubles, which first appeared in the sport calendar of the International Luge Federation (FIL) last winter, will celebrate its Olympic baptism of fire.

As was also in the case of the 2016 Youth Olympic Games, cross-national Team Relays are permitted in Lausanne in 2020. In 2016, at the Olympic track in Lillehammer, the national federations of Kazakhstan and Great Britain formed a joint team, which came in twelfth place.