UAE team to participate in Youth Olympic Winter Games

The UAE is the first Gulf country to participate in the 4th Youth Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in South Korea between January 19 and February 1, 2024, with the participation of 1900 athletes from 80 National Olympic Committees from different continents of the world, representing the age group (15–18) years.

The competitions will take place in facilities across four different cities in Gangwon Province, the host province of the event. The UAE team at the 4th Winter Youth Olympic Games will comprise snowboarder Amina Al Mehairi, who will compete in snowboard slopestyle, and alpine skier Alex Striedger, who will compete in alpine skiing.

The participation of the Emirati duo in the Olympic competition is a great achievement, especially as it comes through qualification spots, crowning their efforts over the past period, which started with the UAE Championship in Ski Dubai in October 2022.

This was followed by participation in several local competitions in Europe with the aim of gaining more exposure and raising the technical level of the players. In addition, they underwent developmental camps in a number of snow resorts in Switzerland, Austria, France, and New Zealand with the aim of gaining more exposure, raising the technical level of the players, and collecting points. The qualifiers and points collected by the players at the FIS Junior World Ski

Championships in New Zealand last August contributed to qualifying for the Gangwon Olympics. To participate, players must obtain an international license issued by the International Ski Federation and be between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. They must also have participated in a previous championship, which is a requirement that both UAE players meet.

Fares Al Mutawa, Secretary General of the UAE National Olympic Committee, stressed that the presence of Emirati athletes in major events is a great indication of the advanced level that the Olympic movement in the UAE has reached with the support and belief of our wise leadership in the capabilities of its youth and their efficiency, readiness to meet the elite athletes in the arenas of sports competition, and the great confidence and determination of these champions who have set a clear path for themselves and exerted maximum effort to achieve their goals and reach their desired goals in the journey of representing the generous UAE.

Mutawa added, "We look forward to such opportunities to express our full support and interest in national sports talents, which have been and continue to be a top priority for the President of the National Olympic Committee and part of its strategy and vision to empower athletes and succeed in their endeavors, in line with the directives of Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, President of the National Olympic Committee, on the importance of providing support to all athletes and opening continuous channels of communication with them to identify the possibilities that help them perform their mission and record the best results and motivate them to sustain it, in a way that benefits UAE sports.”

Hamel Ahmed Al Qubaisi, Vice President of the UAE Winter Sports Federation, said that the UAE’s participation in the Winter Youth Olympics is an achievement in itself for UAE sports and is the result of the federation’s plans and the efforts of the National Olympic Committee and Ski Dubai to develop and qualify players by participating in local and international competitions, with the aim of having an effective presence in global sports events. We look forward to achieving an honorable technical level in our first participation in the Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Qubaisi added that this participation is an important milestone for future participation in the Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy, in 2026. It also supports the UAE's participation in the International Ski Federation and the International Olympic Committee.

The 4th Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in Gangwon Province, Republic of Korea, which has already hosted the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. This will be the first edition held in Asia and will build on the Olympic legacy. Gangwon 2024’s vision is to allow youth to celebrate peaceful coexistence and unity through sport in order to build a better future together, with the goal of driving positive change and social cohesion in the world and impacting society in the areas of sport, culture, and tourism.

The Gangwon 2024 Games will also benefit from many of the facilities used at Pyeongchang 2018. This will ensure cost-effective and sustainable Youth Games, while at the same time providing participating athletes with the chance to compete at some of the same venues where Olympic athletes competed just a few years ago.

The first edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games was launched in 2012 in Innsbruck, Austria, while Lillehammer, Norway, hosted the second edition in 2016, and Lausanne, Switzerland, hosted the third edition in 2020.