Borjomi & Bakuriani May Host 2025 European Olympic Winter Festival

Borjomi and Bakuriani have been nominated as candidate host cities for the 2025 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. The President of the European Olympic Committee (EOC), Janez Kocijančič, together with the secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi, sent a letter to the President of the National Olympic Committee of Georgias (GNOC), Leri Khabelov, officially confirming the candidate status for Georgian resorts.

The festival’s evaluation commission will pay an official visit to Borjomi and Bakuriani in February 2020. GNOC must provide EOC with all essential information on festival hosting by July 31, 2020. The winning candidate is set to be revealed at a general assembly of the EOC in November 2020. 

The nomination is a further boost to Bakuriani, the winter resort in the high Caucasus that already dominates the scene for sports enthusiasts. Recent news from Bakuriani include the planning of a joint French-Georgian restoration of a track for biathlon, the Olympic sport combining skiing and rifle shooting, making this option available for the first time in 30 years in the country. This is a move to further improve winter sports facilities with a bold view towards future Olympics hosting.

Borjomi, one of Georgia’s most unique resort localities, has been the subject of a 2018-announced state project that envisages to transform it into a network of historical attractions. Under the initiative, the monuments and sites are being subject to the restoration and development project titled Borjomi - a Museum City. Beside the historical sites and buildings from the Tsarist era, including 19th century residential houses for Russian Imperial nobility, the town also features a vintage narrow-gauge railway passing over its picturesque natural landscapes, connecting it to Bakuriani.

By Elene Dzebisashvili