Gangwon 2024 Chef de Mission announced, while YOG hopefuls look to crucial Junior World Championships

The fourth edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held between 19 January - 1 February 2024 in the Gangwon province of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), which hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2018.

The Australian Olympic Committee recently confirmed Freestyle Skiing Olympian Ramone Cooper will head Australia’s team at the Gangwon 2024 Winter YOG, for his second Games as Chef de Mission.

The Gangwon 2024 Winter YOG will see around 1900 athletes from 81 countries compete, using several legacy venues used during the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, which Cooper attended as one of the AOC’s High Performance Managers.
 
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic mogul skier said he will use his experience as Chef de Mission at the Lausanne 2020 Winter YOG to provide the best environment for young athletes to gain experience and excel on the global stage.
 
“I’ve been fortunate to experience each edition of the Winter YOGs since their inception in Innsbruck 2012. It’s a great honour to return as Chef de Mission for Gangwon 2024 and to be part of the team that will create opportunities for the next generation of Australian winter athletes,” Cooper said.
 
“The YOG offers athletes and team officials a chance to grow and develop in a competitive, but supportive environment that goes beyond performances on the field of play. I’m looking forward to working with our talented athletes, coaches and team officials during this very important step in their respective pathways” he concluded.

With the Gangwon 2024 qualification period running from 1 July 2022 to 17 December 2023, the 2023 Junior World Championships will be key events to secure national quota spots for the Winter YOG in the discipline of alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. 

The 2023 Alpine Junior World Championships will be held in St. Anton (Austria), from 17-26 January, followed by the Cross-Country Skiing Junior World Championships in Whistler (Canada) from 28 January to 4 February 2023.

Airlo, in Switzerland, will host the Moguls Junior World Championships (20-26 March, 2023) while the Snowboard Cross and Ski Cross will compete in Italy, at Passo San Pellegrino, (27th March - 1 April 2023).

The Park and Pipe Junior World Championships will take place in the Southern Hemisphere, with the New Zealand resort of Cardrona hosting between 28 August and 8 September 2023. A breakdown of the selection timelines for each event is included below.

Junior World Championships selection timelines
    •    Alpine skiing: December 20-25, 2022
    •    Cross-country skiing: 21-22 January, 2023
    •    Moguls: 13-14 February, 2023
    •    Snowboard Cross: 13-14 February, 2023
    •    Ski Cross: 26– 27 February 2023
    •    Park&Pipe: TBC

As the Junior World Championships will be used to obtain nations quota spots for the YOG, each national discipline committee may allocate up to the maximum quota (four female athletes and four male athletes) for each discipline. The quota allocation will be based on the specific discipline selection policy and criteria, which can be found on the Snow Australia website (alpine skiing | cross-country skiing | freestyle skiing | snowboard).

Full details regarding the YOG qualification system can be found HERE