ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The 2016 Olympic Winter Youth Games, officially known as the Olympic Winter Youth Games, are held in Lillehammer, Norway from 12 to .

A unique candidate, Lillehammer was officially designated as the organizing city of the Games on the 1st.

Selection of host city

Hosted the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer had already applied for the 2012 Olympic Winter Youth Games but had not been elected.

After consulting and obtaining agreement with the Norwegian national and regional authorities, the Norwegian Olympic Committee finally submitted the city's candidacy to the IOC for the next edition in 2016. The cities of
Lake Placid, Lucerne, Zaragoza and Sofia all expressed their interest in submitting their applications but eventually did not submit them.

On , the International Olympic Committee selected Lillehammer as the host city of the 2016 Olympic Winter Youth Games.

Organization

Budget and Organizational Committee
The estimated budget of the JOJ, announced during the application phase, was approximately US dollars (i.e. EUR of the time), provided by the public authorities for half. The final budget was divided between the construction of the Youth Olympic Village (EUR) and the operational budget of .

The Organizing Committee for the Lillehammer Youth Olympic Games was chaired by Siri Hatlen.

Marketing
The JOJ emblem reproduces the graphic charter of previous editions, namely a logo composed of the name the host city overtaking the emblem of the Olympic Youth Games. The logo was created by four students of the school, named Marianne Ågotnes, Anja Rullestad, Marte Stensrud and Live Andrea Sulheim.

Mascotte
The Games mascot, Sjogg, is named with reference to snow, the main element of winter sports with ice. It was unveiled after an online competition. The final version of the mascot was modified from the version submitted by the young winner of this contest.

The Olympic Flame

After being lit in accordance with the tradition of Olympism at the Pan-Athenaic Stadium in Athens, the Olympic flame of youth was relayed to Norwegian territory from the 1st century. The relay begins in the city of Alta and ends as in 1994 in the Lysgårds springboard. The Olympic basin was lit at the opening ceremony by Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, daughter of Crown Prince Haakon, who had lit the 1994 Olympic basin.

Different from that of 1994, the basin that burns during the YOG is located in the and is extinguished during the closing ceremony.

The Games

Calendar

Participating Nations
71 nations participate in these Youth Olympic Games, two more than in the previous edition and four more than in the 19th Olympic Winter Games