The decision to put both bidding cities through to the shortlist was made by the IOC Executive Board in Monaco after reviewing a report by the Evaluation Commission, chaired by Yang Yang. The Evaluation Commission report was based on the Candidature Files and relevant documentation submitted by the two cities.
The IOC takes this opportunity to thank both cities for their hard work, dedication and support of the Olympic Movement and Youth Olympic Games.
The Evaluation Commission will now conduct further assessments of the two projects and hold video conferences with representatives of the two shortlisted Candidate Cities before submitting a report to the IOC members, who are scheduled to elect the host city at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur in July 2015.
The following timetable has been established for this phase:
- June 2015: Second report by the IOC Evaluation Commission
- 31 July 2015: Election of the host city of the 3rd Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2020.
The bid to host the 3rd Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2020 follows one successful winter and two summer editions of the Games (Nanjing 2014, Singapore 2010 and Innsbruck 2012) and demonstrates the growing interest from cities around the world in staging the event. The 2nd Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in Lillehammer in February 2016, followed by the 3rd summer edition in Buenos Aires in 2018.
*Shortlisted Candidate Cities in alphabetical order