EYOF, the Youth Olympics Games, opens in Trieste

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 22 GEN - The 16th winter edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival - EYOF 2023, scheduled until January 28, kicks off tonight with the opening ceremony in Piazza Unità d'Italia in Trieste. Eleven competition venues in Friuli Venezia Giulia and abroad (including the Austrian Spittal in Austria and Planica in Slovenia), 14 sporting events, and 109 competitions in which 1,300 young athletes, aged between 14 and 18, from 47 countries will participate.

A dazzling light show welcomed the guests to the ceremony tonight, inspired by the water cycle, including clouds, rain, the sea, and snow, and at the same time by the process of an athlete's sporting life, from the first competitions until the Olympic games. The ceremony, in a square whipped by the bora, was attended, among others, by Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, the president of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Giovanni Malagò, the president of the FVG Region, Massimiliano Fedriga.

The torch left Rome on December 4 and lit the cauldron set up in the square. The Olympian Jonathan Milan was the last torchbearer. Minister Abodi made the official opening speech of the games: EYOF 2023, the minister said on the ceremony sidelines, is "an approach" to the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics and Paralympics. "Italy must concentrate on such significant international events in these years": we don't just meet "to win a medal but also to reaffirm the value of sport and the investment we are making for the younger generations." Russian athletes will not participate in the competition. "We regret not having Russian and Belarusian athletes" in the games, explained the president of the European Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, in the afternoon, "it was a decision by the IOC. In the future, the participation of athletes will be evaluated within the IOC regardless of their passport and country, but only based on performance." The Ukrainian athletes are guests of the FVG Region. (ANSA).

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