YOG athletes who lit up the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games
Ailing (Eileen) Gu, Birk Ruud, Chloe Kim and Petra Vlhova were among the athletes who shone in Beijing having previously excelled at Youth Olympic Games.
What do freeski stars Ailing (Eileen) Gu and Birk Ruud, snowboard sensation Chloe Kim, and slalom ace Petra Vlhova have in common?
All of them went on to light up the Olympic Winter Games after first cutting their teeth at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG)!
China’s Gu, one of the standout performers at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, made her debut on the Olympic stage at the Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020.
The 18-year-old California-born athlete repeated her haul from Lausanne as she won halfpipe and Big Air gold and slopestyle silver on home snow.
On its Olympic debut, Big Air freestyle skiing gold also went to a YOG graduate in Birk Ruud.
The Norwegian took slopestyle victory in front of his home fans at YOG Lillehammer 2016 before making the top step of the podium in Beijing.
Chloe Kim won halfpipe and slopestyle gold in Lillehammer before concentrating on halfpipe in which she won the Olympic title at PyeongChang 2018.
Four years later, after taking time out to start college, the snowboard superstar retained her crown in the Chinese capital.
Petra Vlhova had a bit longer to wait before converting her YOG medal into Olympic glory.
The 26-year-old won slalom gold at the very first Winter YOG - Innsbruck 2012 - and repeated that success in Beijing 10 years later.
Of the 341 YOG alumni taking part in Beijing, 103 had competed at the YOG Innsbruck 2012, 155 at Lillehammer 2016 and 83 at Lausanne 2020.
They won 53 medals in total in Beijing (24 gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze), accounting for more than 16 per cent of the medals up for grabs.
After three Winter YOG editions, more and more participants are making the step up to the Olympic Winter Games.
Whereas only 67 athletes who competed at Innsbruck 2012 went on to qualify for Sochi 2014, 237 YOG athletes – almost four times as many – competed at PyeongChang 2018, with 341 featuring at Beijing 2022.
There has been a similar trend when it comes to medals. At Sochi 2014, the smallish first crop of former YOG athletes won just two per cent of the medals; at PyeongChang 2018, YOG alumni won four times as many (8.8 per cent), and in Beijing it was eight times as many (16.2 per cent).
As well as providing a launchpad for young talents to reach elite level, the Winter YOG are also giving athletes from less established winter sports nations a taste of the big time.
Shannon Abeda, the first Eritrean to compete at an Olympic Winter Games, started out at YOG Innsbruck 2012.
He made his Olympic Winter Games debut at PyeongChang 2018 before competing again at Beijing 2022. "The Youth Olympic Games changed my life,” he said. “They were a springboard for me to go to the Olympic Games."
Another alpine skier, Jan Zabystran from Czech Republic, appeared at YOG Lillehammer 2016 before competing at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
He said, "The YOG in Lillehammer weren’t just a great experience and preparation for the Olympic Games – more than anything it was a really special moment for me. Good luck to all the young athletes preparing for Gangwon 2024."
Like Zabystran, Colombia's Michael Poettoz raced in alpine skiing at YOG Lillehammer before representing his country at PyeongChang and Beijing.
He has this message for the next crop of young athletes preparing for the next Winter YOG being held in the Republic of Korea from 19 January to 1 February 2024: "In 2024, at the Youth Olympic Games, it will be up to you to perform and give your best.”
In just a decade since the first Winter YOG, it is clear the event has become a crucial springboard for generations of athletes.