The Olympic flag is seen during the opening ceremony of the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games at Vaudoise Arena, Lausanne, Switzerland, January 9, 2020.
The South Korean province of Gangwon has been chosen as the hosts for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the decision following its session on Friday in Lausanne, the host city, for the ongoing 2020 edition.
This was the first awarding of an event under the IOC's recently-approved process for electing host cities, and Gangwon was the only candidate put forth to vote at the session by the IOC Future Host Winter Commission, chaired by IOC member Octavian Morariu.
The host city proposal was approved by the IOC session by 79 votes to 2 after there was one abstention while the two South Korean IOC members could not vote.
The IOC said in a statement, "The new Winter Youth Olympic Games host will benefit from many of the facilities used in PyeongChang 2018 as well as possible alternative venue options. Competitions would take place in PyeongChang (mountain sports) and Gangneung (ice sports), similar to the Games concept in 2018. The Winter YOG will provide young athletes with the opportunity to compete in some of the same venues where Olympians competed a few years earlier."
The announcement also helped the South Korean winter sports province become the first-ever Asian hosts for the Winter Youth Olympics. The PyeongChang city of the province successfully hosted the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, while Gangneung has got all the facilities for the high-profile winter youth event.
The IOC mentioned that many of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics facilities would be used to host mountain sports while ice sports will be contested in Gangneung.
After securing the hosting rights for Gangwon province, Park Yang-woo, minister of culture, sport and tourism of South Korea and head of the 2024 delegation, said, "We will continue the strong legacy of the recent Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang and work to achieve our vision of expanding new horizons in sport."
Meanwhile, Morariu revealed to the media that Barcelona, Salt Lake City, and Sapporo are interested in hosting 2030, 2034, or 2038 Winter Olympic Games.