Lausanne 2020

In 2020, Lausanne and Switzerland captured this special Olympic heritage, and with their strong international sports expertise and capacity to innovate, redefined it and updated it with the youth of the world to provide the next generation with a brand new and refreshed ownership of the Olympic values.

The event took place in and around Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and in the nearby Vaud Alps.

The Youth Olympic Village was located in the heart of the city’s 35,000 student university campus.

The mascot is called Yodli, a hybrid animal, composed of several emblematically Swiss animals that live in the Swiss mountains: a cow, a goat and of course a St Bernard dog. Their different characteristics and relationships with the environment are embodied in Yodli, who signifies the diversity of the participants of the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020.

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The Lausanne 2020 sports programme featured ski mountaineering for the first time in Winter Olympic history. The lung-busting new addition involved scaling mountains on skis (or carrying them depending on the severity of the ascent), before skiing back down.

Some fresh, new disciplines were introduced to reflect innovation and ensured gender equality. After its thrilling debut at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, big air is now part of the YOG.

Following the success of other short sports formats at the YOG, such as 3x3 basketball and hockey5s, Lausanne 2020 enjoyed the addition of the innovative 3x3 ice hockey format.

Also the addition of two new events for women: doubles luge and Nordic combined, helped to achieve perfect gender balance at Lausanne 2020.

Download the programme here