One Year to go until Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games

Today (January 9th 2019) marks a year until the launch of the third Winter Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

1800 athletes aged 15 to 18 will compete in eight sports from the 9th until the 22nd of January 2020. The athletes will compete across the whole of Switzerland, and neighbouring France, enabling many regions to be a part of the Olympic spirit.

New Zealand will send a team to compete at the Games. 11 Kiwi athletes competed at the previous edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games, winning two medals. Four of the athletes went to be selected for the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games two years later.

To celebrate the “one year to go” milestone, the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Organising Committee (YOGOC) has unveiled its mascot “Yodli”, designed by students from a local art school.

Yodli was designed by 140 students from Eracom, a local art and communication school. The different drafts were shown to school children from Lausanne and surrounding areas, to collect feedback and adapt the mascot and the final choice was then given to 500 young Swiss athletes from 12 to 18, who had the vote on the final design.

Yodli is a hybrid animal, composed of several emblematically Swiss animals that live in the Swiss mountains; a cow, a goat and a Saint Bernard dog. These different characteristics and relationships to the environment are embodied in Yodli who signifies the diversity of the participants of the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020.