Innsbruck 2012 - Host City for the Youth Olympic Games

The Team of Innsbruck 2012 looks forward to its as ...

In 1.000 days Innsbruck-Tirol will be under the sign of the Olympic Rings for the 3rd time
After the Olympic Games in 1964 and 1976, Innsbruck-Tirol in 2012 will host the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games. In order to be prepared for the Games in 2012, a strong team was formed last week, led by Martin Schnitzer.

With the Winter Youth Olympic Games (WYOG) Innsbruck will for a short period be the only City ever to have hosted the Olympic Games for three times. Six months after the WYOG, London will draw level with Innsbruck and host the Olympic Games for the 3rd time as well.
“By organising of the WYOG 2012, the State of Tyrol will be once again confirmed as the leading “Sports Region” in the Alps. To ensure the best possible organisation of the Olympic Games, a competent team has been assembled after a long selection process: Martin Schnitzer, Peter Bayer, Jürgen Steinberger, Werner Margreiter and Philipp Groborsch are optimally networked on a regional and an international level. The team members complement each other and they have learned teamwork with young people”, declared Hannes Gschwentner, Sports Chancellor of the State of the Tyrol.

Christoph Platzgummer, former Coordinator of the UEFA Euro 2008 in Innsbruck and President of the Organising Committee of the WYOG 2012, also knows how important a well-functioning team is. “I confirmed the functional qualification of the candidates and we selected them for these future challenges. So far we have recruited eight people and we have set up a strong basis for the organisation of the WYOG. Towards 2012, we will create more qualified new positions in various areas within this attractive and international project,” summarised Platzgummer.

IOC Orientation Seminar in Innsbruck
The IOC delegation led by the chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission, Gian-Franco Kasper, visited Innsbruck for a first collective Orientation Seminar on the occasion of the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012.

Over 120 participants, who directly and indirectly are entrusted with the organisation of the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012, have been invited to join the Orientation Seminar.
Representatives from tourism, transport, education, security and sports federations as well as authorities from the city and the country Tyrol followed the invitation of the IOC and participated at this workshop.

Whereas the IOC illustrated the importance of a strong collaboration between the IOC and the local Organising Committee (IYOGOC), Martin Schnitzer CEO of the IYOGOC explained the concept of the WYOG from a local point of view.
Content of the 1st day was a general overview of the project and the idea of the Youth Olympic Games as well as a first insight into the project management of the YOG.

During the 2nd day the different operations and the associated tasks were discussed.
The high number of participants underlined the great interests of the local partners for the YOG.
A location tour to all venues, where in January 2009 around 1.000 young athletes will compete for medals in the different winter sports, was arranged at the end of the IOC´s stay.

Inaugural Visit of IOC President Jacques Rogge
IOC President Jacques Rogge paid Innsbruck the honor of an inaugural visit from January 14 to 15, 2009. The newly appointed Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for Innsbruck 2012, FIS President Gian-Franco Kasper, was part of the accompanying IOC delegation which also included senior IOC administrators.

On January 15, 2009, the Host City Contract was signed by IOC President Rogge, Innsbruck Mayor Hilde Zach, and IOC Member Leo Wallner in his capacity as President of the Austrian Olympic Committee.

The IOC delegation was hosted by Innsbruck 2012 President Christoph Platzgummer and Innsbruck 2012 Vice President Hannes Gschwentner. Within 24 hours President Rogge and Chairman Kasper met with representatives of important stakeholders, visited the venues and held a first meeting with the Innsbruck 2012 organising committee.

We did it!

The final decision has been made - Innsbruck is Host City for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012

On Friday, December 12, 2008 the eagerly awaited result about who is going to host the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012 was announced by IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Innsbruck wins the bid and is selected as Host City for 2012. Immediately, Innsbruck 2012 extended congratulations to fellow finalist Kuopio as well as to the other Candidate Cities Harbin and Lillehammer thanking them for the fair competition.

"We feel very proud and fortunate about the IOC member"s decision. The Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck will be a memorable and a unique experience for all parties involved," said the Bid President for Innsbruck 2012, Christoph Platzgummer, after the announcement.

Following the Olympic Winter Games of 1964 and 1976 this will be the third time Olympic competitions will be held in the Tyrolean capital.

The Organising Committee is now looking forward to 1,127 days of hard work in preparing the Youth Olympic Games until the Olympic Movement will gather for the opening ceremony on January 13, 2012, in Innsbruck.

Innsbruck 2012 is ready to go!

Innsbruck 2012

A Sport + Media Experience for Young Olympians

Innsbruck 2012 has created a truly innovative concept for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games, a fully integrated sports + media experience designed to inspire young people athletically, culturally and vocationally.

The two-community, two-cluster compact winter sports plan is balanced against a Culture and Education Programme (ECP) that gives each young participant an opportunity to collaborate across cultures in the creation of athlete-generated Internet content that can be shared with the world during the Games. Drawing on theories of innovation management, Innsbruck has designed a media-rich ECP environment where young Olympians can immerse themselves in a series of media platforms—print, television, radio, photography and the Internet—to pursue the creative expression of friendship, excellence and respect while learning to cooperate and collaborate with peers from every continent.

In its stunning natural environment between towering peaks in the middle of the Alps, Innsbruck offers an innovative vision for the Winter Youth Olympic Games that will help transform the sporting event into the new worldwide Youth Olympic Movement the IOC is intent on creating.

Live announcement
Watch the announcement of the Host City for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games 2012 here.

Youth Olympic Games 2012: Innsbruck among the final two

After a thorough evaluation of Innsbruck’s application, the IOC announced on Monday, November 3, 2008, that Innsbruck would be one of the finalist candidate cities.

Now that two strong contenders, namely Lillehammer (Norway) and Harbin (China), are out of the running, Innsbruck will compete against Kuopio (Finland).

The Tyrolean representatives on the Bid Committee were delighted by the IOC’s decision. Innsbruck’s Deputy Mayor, Christoph Platzgummer, believed he knew the reasons for the decision. He said: “The sports city of Innsbruck scores highly because of its existing and, more than anything else, ultra-modern sports facilities. The investment in sports complexes, such as the two ice rinks and the bob and luge track in Innsbruck-Igls, was recognised by the IOC’s international experts and this played an important part in our winning the finalist nomination.”

The Deputy Governor of the State of Tyrol, Hannes Gschwentner, was not that surprised by Innsbruck’s progress to the final stage. He said: “The Austrian bid committee has worked hard in recent months on the task of getting a convincing concept over to the IOC, one that would leave no questions unanswered. The short distances between the venues in Innsbruck and Seefeld definitely gave us an advantage over our rivals.”

Now that the two candidate cities of Innsbruck and Kuopio have been nominated, IOC members will choose the winner by postal vote. The final result of this ballot and the decision about the host city for the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012 will be announced in December 2008.

A total of 50 Candidature Files (blue), three Photographic Files (red), three Guarantee Files (green), 25 CD-Roms (yellow) and five A0-plots (yellow) were shipped in a custom-made box to the IOC in Lausanne on June 19, 2008.

A press conference was held on June 19, 2008, when the Innsbruck 2012 Bid Committee celebrated its first milestone reached: Bid Documents completed and shipped to the IOC. From left to right: IOC member in Austria, Leo Wallner, Innsbruck 2012 Director for Athlete Experience, Karin Huttary, and Innsbruck 2012 President, Christoph Platzgummer.