The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are an elite sporting event for young people aged from 15 to 18 from all over the world.

The sports programme is mainly based on that of the Olympic Games. In addition, it includes exciting new sports, disciplines and formats, such as breaking, sport climbing, 3-x-3 basketball, 3-x-3 ice hockey and mixed gender and mixed National Olympic Committee (NOC) events.

Away from the field of play, the education programme uses a variety of fun and interactive activities, workshops and team-building exercises to give the participating athletes the opportunity to learn about the Olympic values, explore other cultures, develop the skills to become true ambassadors of their sport, and improve their training methods and performance. Non-athlete participants, namely the Young Reporters, YOG Ambassadors and Athlete Role Models, are also an integral part of the YOG experience.

The most recent Summer YOG in Buenos Aires in 2018 featured 4,000 athletes and achieved gender equality for the first time. The latest Winter YOG took place in Gangwon in 2024 and featured 1,800 athletes.

The next Summer YOG will take place in Dakar, Senegal, in 2026. Senegal will be the first country on the African continent to be awarded the honour of hosting an Olympic sports event.