2018 Youth Olympic Games

History of the Youth Olympic Games

2010 Summer Youth Olympics—Singapore

Held in Singapore, 3,524 athletes from 204 nations competed in the first games from August 14-26, 2010. Introduced and continued to this day are the mixed-NOCs teams (comprising youths from different countries) and the Culture & Education Programs. Another unique feature of the games was that all the athletes were required to stay for the full duration.

2012 Winter Youth Olympics—Innsbruck

Held in Innsbruck, Switzerland, 1,059 athletes from 63 nations competed in the first winter games from January 13-22, 2012. This marked the third winter games hosted in the city, the previous two in 1964 and 1976, respectively. As part of the goal to keep costs down and promote sustainability, no new permanent venues were created for the games.

2014 Summer Youth Olympics—Nanjing, Jiangsu

Held in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, 3,579 athletes from 203 nations competed in the second summer games from August 14-28, 2014. In all, 222 events took place. During these games, Olympic athlete role models were introduced to support and mentor the competing youth athletes—helping to inspire and push them toward greatness.

2016 Winter Youth Olympics—Lillehammer

Held in Lillehammer, Norway, 1,100 athletes from 71 nations competed in the second winter games from February 12-21, 2016—this made Lillehammer the first city to host both regular (1994) and Youth Olympics. The Youth Olympic Games featured 7 sports and 15 disciplines with 70 events.

2018 Summer Youth Olympics—Buenos Aires

Held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 3,997 athletes from 206 nations competed in the third summer games from October 6-18, 2018. The 2018 Games were the first summer games held outside Asia and featured the most athletes to date. The games included 239 events in 32 sports.

2020 Winter Youth Olympics—Lausanne

Held in Lausanne, Switzerland, 1,788 athletes from 79 nations competed in the third winter games from January 9-22, 2020. This was the largest winter Youth Olympic Games to date with 12 nations making their debuts. The games featured 81 events across 8 sports and 16 disciplines.