The EYOF Olympic Flame 2015 Arrives in Georgia

The Olympic flame for the 2015 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) was lit in the ancient Greek city of Athens and on 26th of May, (Georgian Independence Day) landed in Georgia’s seaside city Batumi ahead of the Tbilisi 2015 torch relay.

The design of the torch unites elements of the festival, as well as Georgian traditional components.

The flame was lit at a special ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens and handed to Lasha Shavdatuashvili, a Georgian sportsman who is the official first torch bearer of the EYOF 2015.

Many other torch bearers and Georgian athletes were the first to welcome the Olympic flame to Georgia at a special ceremony which was held in Batumi International Airport.

Later, Shavdatuashvili handed the Olympic torch to Georgian tennis player Mariam Bolkvadze.

“The flame arrived in Georgia! It’s unprecedented! It’s great that flame will be transported across other municipalities of Georgia. The infrastructure built for the EYOF 2015 will, of course, stay in Georgia, which means young people will be able to further enhance their sporting success,” said Nona Gaprindashvili, the sixth women’s world chess champion.

On May 28, the Olympic flame left Batumi on its journey across 67 municipalities of Georgia before its intended arrival in Tbilisi on July 14 ahead of the international competition which will be held from July 25 to August 2, 2015.

For EYOF 2015 (Tbilisi 2015), more than 4000 youth athletes from 49 European countries will come to Georgia’s capital to participate in nine sports: Judo, tennis, artistic gymnastics, track cycling, track and field athletics, swimming, volley ball and basketball.

Nino Melikishvili