The Winter Youth Olympic Games torch tour is on its route from the very north of Norway to Lillehammer to arrive for the 12^th February opening. The Tour visited the Norwegian Royal Palace last weekend, using the Royal Gardens as a Freestyle Skiing park complete with rails and kickers. The sports of Cross-Country, Ski Jumping, Biathlon and Figure Skating were also on show.

Meanwhile, the 1,100 young Olympians aged 15-18 coming to Lillehammer will not only compete in 70 medal events, they will also be part of a broad educational and cultural experience as essential components of the Youth Olympic Games.

Learn & Share Activities

The educational programme of Lillehammer 2016 aims to empower athletes with new skills that enable them to perform better both on and off the field of play and to provide local and visiting youth with a learning experience.

Learn & Share Focus Day

17^th of February 2016 will be dedicated to learn & share outside of training and competition. All athletes and team officials from the FIS disciplines will be specially invited to ‘Chat with Champions’ sessions on the topic of “How to Prepare for Race Day” at the Radisson Blu in Lillehammer. The FIS Athlete Role Models will be on hand to share their experience together with FIS experts:

Seminar hall 1:

• 14:30-15:30: Freestyle Skiing/Snowboard with Hannah Kearney and Ross Powers
• 16:00-17:00: Alpine Skiing with Dominique Gisin

Seminar hall 2:

• 14:30-15:30: Cross-Country Skiing with Claudia Nystad and Felix Gottwald
• 16:00-17:00: Ski Jumping with Anette Sagen and Felix Gottwald

Try the Sport

In cooperation with the International Federations and the National Associations, Lillehammer 2016 will offer local youth and athletes a unique opportunity to try all Olympic Winter Sports at the Lillehammer 2016 sport venues throughout the Games.         

The Try the Sport Programme is a registered FIS SnowKidz event and consists of two parts:

1. Easy accessible activities for inexperienced participants, where they will be able to try a new sport in a simple and fun format. For the Skiing disciplines, SnowKidz partner FESI will be supplying skis.
2. Activities for the more experienced young athletes, who want to learn more and improve their performance in their favourite sport. Qualified coaches will offer high-level coaching to participants who bring their own equipment.

To find out more about the educational and cultural programme at Lillehammer 2016, visit here:

Educational: http://www.lillehammer2016.com/en/Information/Learn-Share

Cultural: http://www.sjoggfest.no/

Source: fis-ski.com