From Ailing Eileen Gu to Dusty Henricksen: Where are the stars of the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympics now?

The three Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to date have unearthed a plethora of talent that went on to shine at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Out of the 341 YOG alumni that took part in China, 53 went on to win medals (24 gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze), including stars like Ailing Eileen Gu, Chloe Kim, Petra Vlhova and Birk Ruud.

For some, the rate of progression from junior to senior athlete has been astonishing; there were 83 athletes at Beijing 2022, who competed at the Lausanne 2020 YOG just two years previously.

Ahead of the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympics Games, we take a closer look at the top stars from Lausanne who have gone on to become household names in winter sport.

Ailing Eileen Gu - China, freestyle skiing

Ailing Eileen Gu was arguably the stand out performer of the Lausanne 2020 YOG.

The Chinese starlet put on a near faultless display to win gold medals in the big air and halfpipe, and a silver in slopestyle.

Using that momentum, the California-born athlete secured two golds at the 2021 Winter X Games, before becoming the halfpipe and slopestyle world champion at Aspen 2021.

These successes meant that there was enormous pressure on her going into a home Olympic Games at Beijing 2022.

Showing maturity well beyond her 18 years, she stepped up to land gold medals in big air and halfpipe, as well as a slopestyle silver - the exact same results that she secured at Lausanne 2020.

“I think the YOG totally prepared me [for Beijing 2022],” Gu, who became the first freestyle skier to win a medal in three events at a single Games, told Olympics.com of the repeat performance.

“The Youth Olympics are so different from World Cups, X-Games, World Championships or any other contests I’ve been to, because it has athletes from different disciplines, and it has everybody in that same Olympic Village area. It’s just this great melting pot of talent from all over the world, and a great opportunity to learn from each other.”

Kagiyama Yuma - Japan, figure skating

Kagiyama Yuma was given the honour of being Japan’s flag-bearer at the Lausanne 2020 Opening Ceremony, such was his stellar reputation going into the event.

The figure skater seemed to flourish in that spotlight, taking home gold in the men’s singles and silver in the mixed NOC team event.

Later that year the teenager finished third at the prestigious Four Continents Championships, his first senior ISU championship podium.

Kagiyama was named to Japan’s 2021 World Championships team alongside two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru and current world champion Uno Shoma, where he won the silver medal and became the youngest medalist at Worlds since Hanyu's bronze medal at the 2012 World Championships.

On the ice, another star of Lausanne 2020, Japanese figure skater Kagiyama Yuma, backed up his gold medal from two years ago with silver in the men’s singles event. The 18-year-old also helped Japan to win a medal in the team event with a stunning free skate.

Kelly Sildaru - Estonia, freestyle skiing

Kelly Sildaru went into Lausanne 2020 as one of the most high profile athletes, having sealed the 2019 halfpipe world title and five Winter X Games golds - the first of which she won as a 13-year-old.

In the process, she became the youngest ever Winter X Games gold medallist and Estonia’s first overall.

The Tallinn-born talent showed all of that class at the 2020 YOG in Switzerland, taking the slopestyle title and ending Eileen Gu’s hopes of a golden hat-trick.

The 19-year-old secured another record at Beijing 2022, where she won slopestyle bronze to become her country’s youngest-ever Olympic medallist.

Alongside Gu, the talented duo look set to dominate women’s freestyle skiing for the foreseeable future.

Dusty Henricksen - USA, Snowboarding

After winning slopestyle gold at the Lausanne 2020 YOG, Dusty Henricksen has become a snowboarding sensation.

A month later, the California teen became the first person to land a quadruple cork in a slopestyle competition at the 2020 Burton US Open, where he completed a backside quad cork 1800.

Aged just 17, Henricksen went on to claim two gold medals at the 2021 Winter X Games, in slopestyle and Knuckle Huck.

This made him the first U.S. male snowboarder to win the Winter X Games slopestyle snowboarding competition since Shaun White in 2009.

With such an array of tricks up his sleeve, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Henricksen has become a social media sensation with a huge following online.

You Young - Korea, figure skating

You Young was Korea’s senior figure skating national champion going into Lausanne 2020, but anyone hoping to score an upset against her in the ladies singles in Lausanne was to be disappointed.

She won the free skate by over 12 points, landing eight clean triples for the first time, to take top spot.

Since then she has continued to up her game, finishing with silver at the prestigious Four Continents Championships to become her nation’s first Four Continents medallist since Olympic champion Yuna Kim won the event in 2009.

She placed first again at the 2022 South Korean Championships, and qualified for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, where she finished sixth overall.

At the 2022 World Championships she ended up in fifth spot.

Cutter Gauthier - USA, Ice hockey

Several members of the USA ice hockey team that finished with silver seem destined for a career in the National Hockey League.

The top prospect, however, is Cutter Gauthier.

In 2022, the Boston College student helped his nation win another silver at the World U18 Championships in 2022 with three goals and six assists.

That great form resulted in Gauthier being picked fifth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers.

Gyda Westvold Hansen - Norway, Nordic combined

Hansen maintained Norway’s fearsome reputation in winter sports at Lausanne 2020 by helping them win the mixed team normal hill competition.

Victory followed a month later in the same event at the World Junior Championships. These performances were just a hint for what was to come from Hansen, however.

In 2021, she became the World Junior Champion in individual normal hill before taking the first ever women’s individual Nordic combined world championship title in Oberstdorf.

In the Senior World Cup, she has become a regular feature atop the podiums, having clinched five first place finishes to date.

Nathan Young - Canada, Curling

Curling is a big deal in Canada, and Nathan Young made headlines when he won the mixed NOC doubles title alongside Hungary’s Laura Nagy at Lausanne 2020.

In 2022, he became a senior provincial champion and skippered the youngest team ever at Canada’s national championship.

The 19-year-old now skips his own team on the World Curling Tour, that also includes Sam Follett, Nathan Locke, and Ben Stringer.

Seo Whi-min - Korea, short track speed skating

Finally, Seo Whi-min of Korea was unstoppable in Lausanne, winning both the 500m and 1000m short track titles.

A three-time world junior champion, she transitioned seamlessly to the senior ranks, winning 1500m bronze and helping her nation take the 3000m relay gold medal at the 2022 World Championships in Montreal.

The Seoul teeager was selected for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and was a key part of the inexperienced team that took silver in the 300m relay.