IOC Commission Impressed with Lillehammer’s Preparations for 2016 Youth Olympic Games

International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Coordination Commission, who completed their first visit to Lillehammer to inspect preparations for the 2016 Youth Olympic Games, are impressed with the early progress since the city won the bid in December, 2011.

The Coordination Commission visited all the venues that will be used to host the seven sports on the Youth Olympic Programme. The majority of the venues that will be used in 2016 were built for the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, thereby extending the legacies of those Games. One of the few venues to be built from scratch for the 2016 YOG will be the Youth Olympic Village (YOV), which will house the athletes and be the site of all the Culture and Education Programme activities. The YOV will be used afterwards as student housing for both the Lillehammer University College and the Norwegian College of Elite Sport, with construction beginning in the summer of 2013.

Commission Chair Ruggiero said: “We are very impressed with the work already completed in such a short time. LYOGOC is leveraging the foundations of Lillehammer 1994 while gathering knowledge from the hosts of the first Winter YOG, Innsbruck 2012. We have full belief in Lillehammer to not only deliver a successful Games, but also leave a legacy for youth sport development long after the Games have concluded.”