Curling to be included in new Youth Olympics

The International Olympic Committe has moved ahead with plans to hold Youth Olympic Games. The first summer games will take place in 2010. The IOC will choose the host city by February 2008, details here. The Youth Olympics, which will feature about 3,500 athletes aged 14-18, are designed to encourage young people to get involved in sports.

Of interest to curlers is that the first Winter Youth Olympics will be held in 2012 for about 1,000 athletes. Curling will be one of the sports! The host city will be picked in 2009.

In a newsletter sent last month to World Curling Federation member associations, President Les Harrison says, "These Games will be fully funded by the IOC but the numbers of participants will be smaller than the Olympic Games. Age parameters and number of entries for curling have been discussed with the IOC sports department and we will be presenting all details to date at our meetings in Füssen. At this point, we can advise the membership that age limitations will have to be younger than our current WJCC participants."

Responsibility for the GB curling team at these new Youth Olympics will fall on British Curling, which already looks after our representation at the Winter Olympics, Paralympics, the World University Games and the European Youth Olympics.