Lillehammer, Norway
Monday 8 February 2016
The second Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will get underway this week in Lillehammer, Norway, running from Friday 12 February to Sunday 21 February 2016.
A total of 64 curlers representing 16 nations will have the chance to compete for medals in two unique curling competitions – Mixed and Mixed Doubles – at the Curling Hall in the Stampsletta Ice Venues, which will also host Ice Hockey events.
Lillehammer famously hosted the 1994 Olympic Winter Games and remains the most northerly place that an Olympic Games has been held. Norway, also hosted the Games in 1952 in Oslo.
For curling live scores, news, pictures and the event schedule for YOG 2016 visit, www.worldcurling.org/yog2016
From Friday 12 February at 09.00 through to Wednesday 17 February the Mixed event will be played. This competition will have 14 sessions of round-robin play, with teams – comprised of two males and two females – split into two groups, before moving to quarter (13.30) and semi-finals (18.00) on Tuesday 16 February. One session of tiebreaker games (09.00) may be played if required that day. The medal games will be played on Wednesday 17 February at 09.00. All times are Central European Time (CET).
The nations competing in Group A are: China, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and USA.
The nations competing in Group B are: Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Great Britain, Korea, hosts Norway and Sweden.
Four years ago, Switzerland won Gold in the Mixed event in Innsbruck, Austria, while Italy took Silver and Canada Bronze.
After the Mixed event, an innovative Mixed Doubles curling competition will take place from 09:00 on Friday 19 February. This will see one male and one female athlete, from different countries, playing together. The teams will be determined by the athletes’ position within their team and their nations overall position following the Mixed competition. The finals will be played on Sunday 21 February at 13.00. This format was used successfully at the inaugural YOG in 2012, where German-Swiss pair Nicole Muskatewitz and Michael Brunner won Gold.
All Games are scheduled for eight ends, and a minimum of six ends must be completed before a game reaches its conclusion.
As well as the action on the ice there will be a programme of educational and cultural events for athletes and fans alike. This is part of the Local Organising Committee and International Olympic Committee’s ‘Go Beyond. Create Tomorrow’ vision, which aims to make a lasting impact on the lives of the athletes, as well as creating a new generation of volunteers, coaches and leaders in sport.
Athletes will have the opportunity during the Games to try other winter sports and attend ‘Learn & Share’ workshops, as well as taking professional direction from curling Athlete Role Model, Rasmus Stjerne, who is skip of the Danish men’s curling team.
Curling fans can follow all the action from Lillehammer 2016 on social media using the following channels:
Twitter & Instagram: @worldcurling | @Lillehammer2016
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WorldCurlingFederation | www.facebook.com/Lillehammer2016
YouTube: www.youtube.com/lillehammer2016 | www.youtube.com/olympics
Hashtags: #YOGcurling #iLoveYOG #Lillehammer2016