2012 Winter Youth Olympics

The 2012 Winter Youth Olympics is a youth sports festival to be celebrated in early 2012, in accordance with the International Olympic Committee as a new program to encourage youth and sport. It will be the inaugural event similar to the Winter Olympics. Currently, host cities are bidding for the right to host the Games. Swedish skiier Pernilla Wiberg has been appointed as the Evaluation Chair for the Commission to score the applicant cities.

Four cities are in the running to host the Games: Harbin (China), Innsbruck (Austria), Kuopio (Finland), and Lillehammer (Norway).

Bid process

The schedule was announced in January, 2008.

• March 6, 2008 – National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were to inform the IOC of the names of their candidate cities.
• May 19, 2008 – Cities submit Candidature files.
• June 2008 – IOC announces shortlist of Candidate Cities.
• July 2008 – The Evaluation Commission submits its report to the IOC Executive Board.
• August 2008 – The IOC Executive Board will submit its recommendations to the IOC members for a postal vote.
• December 6, 2008 – The host city will be announced.

Candidate cities

All four applicant cities were kept as candidate cities by the IOC in August 2008.

• Harbin, China last bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but failed to make the shortlist. Harbin is known as China's "Ice City" for its winters and associated festivals.
• Innsbruck, Austria. The city of Innsbruck is bidding, supported by the Austrian Olympic Committee. It is a two time host city of the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.
• Kuopio, Finland is a first time bidder.
• Lillehammer, Norway Host city of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

References

External links

• 2012 Winter Youth Olympics brochure
• 2012 Winter Youth Olympics questionnaire