Youth Winter Olympics: Team GB announces the team heading to Gangwon in 2024
- Published
- comments
The athletes are hoping to follow inthe footsteps of athletes like Kirsty Muir, who won silver in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Some 36 athletes will be heading to Gangwon next year to represent Team GB in the Youth Winter Olympic Games.
The young athletes are all aged between 15 and 18.
Some of the winter sports include ice hockey, freestyle skiing and snowboarding.
The event is being held in Gangwon, in South Korea, which last held the Winter Olympics in 2018.
What are the Winter Olympics?
A team of athletes preparing for the winter skating competition - nearly 100 years ago!
The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924, in France, and gave athletes a chance to win at the more winter-friendly sports, like skiing or bobsleigh. It was held in Chamonix, which is in the French alps, where there's traditionally been lots of snow and ice.
Since then, lots more sports have been added, like snowboarding, and in 2026 there's even going to be ski mountaineering.
The Winter Olympics feature a pretty crazy sport called skeleton, where athletes lie perfectly flat and go whizzing down an icy track
The games start in Gangwong on Friday 19 January 2024, and finish on Thursday 1 Feb. These are the youth games - which are focussed on younger athletes. The next Winter Olympics will be held in 2026 in Italy.
Who is representing Team GB?
Team GB have athletes taking part in alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, short track speed skating and snowboarding.
The biggest team is for ice hockey - there's 13 GB athletes going to take part, all aged 14 or 15.
The Winter Youth Olympics were held in 2020 in Switzerland, which created a pretty impressive backdrop for the athletes! This is Ailing Eileen Gu, competing for China, high up in the air on a jump
The team is also being lead by Eve Muirhead. She helped Team GB win gold at Beijing in 2022 for curling.
The games are a big deal for these athletes - a lot of them may be old enough to compete in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan, so they're hoping to build their confidence.