The Culture & Education Programme of the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games saw local school classes from across Tyrol given the challenge of presenting the countries participating in the Games in a creative and interactive way. A total of 56 nations were showcased using stands measuring just 12m² as part of the YOG World Mile in Congress Innsbruck, with young camera teams from Innsbruck Media College on hand to record the presentations and activities in short video clips.

These clips were then uploaded to the online platform Planet Tirol ( www.planet-tirol.com ), where registered users could vote for their favourite country presentation between 25 January and 1 February 2012.

No fewer than 15,742 votes were cast within the space of just eight days, with India taking top spot ahead of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to an excellent presentation by class 2B from the secondary school for economics and business in Lienz in East Tyrol. As a reward for their hard work the class received a €5000 travel voucher.

“We are looking forward to going travelling together, and we may even go to India. The coach of the only Indian athlete participating in the Innsbruck 2012 Games is also a travel agent in Manali and has already offered to help the girls with travel arrangements,” explains teacher Silvia Ebner, who was responsible for coordinating the school’s contribution to the YOG World Mile.

Head of the Culture & Education Programme, Verena Sperl, is delighted with how popular the project proved with local schools: “It’s great that so many classes got involved in the YOG World Mile and helped give the atmosphere in Congress Innsbruck a truly international flair. A lot of hard work went into creating the presentations. I would also like to thank the pupils from Innsbruck Media College who recorded each of the 56 stands for the video contest.”

Click here to see the winning video.

Click here to see the other videos created as part of the YOG World Mile.