The Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games will open on Jan. 19, 2024, and close on Feb. 1. Shown is Gangneung Olympic Park in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province, the site of the ice hockey competition of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics that will host ice events in the 2024 tournament.

By Sarah Oqelee and Yoon Sojung

The Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games will open on Jan. 19, 2024, and close on Feb. 1.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Dec. 9 confirmed the schedule of the tournament in an online session at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

The competition is a winter sports festival for global youth ages 15-18. The inaugural event in 2012 was hosted by Innsbruck, Austria, the second by Lillehammer, Norway, in 2016 and the third by Lausanne last year.

Korea will thus host the fourth Winter Youth Olympic Games and the first held outside of Europe. Backed by the legacy of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the event will be held in Gangwon-do Province in the city of Gangneung and the counties of Pyeongchang-gun, Jeongseon-gun and Hoengseong-gun.

Gangneung will host ice events and Pyeongchang-gun Nordic skiing and sleigh. High1 Ski Resort in Jeongseon-gun will hold alpine and mogul skiing and Hoengseong-gun freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

With 81 events in seven sports scheduled, the competition will have 32 events for men and women each and 17 co-ed.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Jan. 10 announced Gangwon-do Province as the host of the fourth Winter Youth Olympics at the IOC's 135th session in Lausanne, Switzerland. Shown are then Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo (fifth from left) displaying the winner's envelope with the Korean delegation and IOC President Thomas Bach. (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)