The European Youth Olympic Festival – Looking Back
The 13th European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is over. Mayor of Tbilisi, David Narmania declared that he is proud that this outstanding sports event has become a real holiday, which will undoubtedly occupy a worthy place in the history of the Olympic movement.
Tbilisi hosted 2,334 athletes from 50 countries. Volleyball players, handball players, judoka, basketball players, swimmers, tennis players, gymnasts, cyclists and athletes all competed for Olympic medals over 6 days.
At the EYOF Tbilisi 2015 many talented sportsmen and women excelled themselves; the gymnasts – Giarnni Lorenzo Regini-Moran and Daria Skrypnik, the basketball player - Dzanan Musa, the swimmers – Alexei Sancov and Ajna Evelin Kesely – these athletes achieved excellent results at the Festival and have the potential to inscribe their names in the history of sport.
This festival was outstanding for the Georgian sportsmen as well. Georgia came in tenth in the general ranking of medals. Mostly, this is thanks to the judokas. Nine out of the ten medals were earned by judokas with one bronze medal earned by Dmitri Govorov in gymnastics. In EYOF Tbilisi 2015, the Georgian judokas had the best results in the entire judo competition, earning 9 (4-0-5) medals in total.
As was expected, the Russian delegation earned the most medals (including gold) at the EYOF; they won 17 gold, 9 silver and 11 bronze medals in total; it is not surprising that the most of these medals for Russia were for the artistic gymnastics with Darya Skrypnik, who gained four gold and one silver for her country.
Ultimately, Italy with 24 medals was the most successful in terms of medal count after Russia, earning the most medals in judo. Carolina Visca of Italy beat the EYOF record in girls’ javelin throw, with a distance of 60.09m and earned the gold medal easily. In athletics, Russia’s Elizaveta Bondarenko broke another EYOF record in the pole vault, clearing a 4.20 meter-high barrier.
France did not break any records, but was the most successful in athletics. The young athletes earned 12 (6–3–3) medals in the various disciplines and played the largest role in helping France to come third in the group ranking. In EYOF Tbilisi 2015, France’s boys’ handball team was peerless, and fully deserving of the gold medal. The girls’ handball final was one of the festival’s most exciting, with Russia beating Denmark by an extremely close score of 21–20.
In group sport, Poland seemed to have the dominant position in its boys’ volleyball team. Throughout the tournament, Poland went ahead without losing a single set, leaving no chance of victory to Bulgaria’s boys’ team in the finals. Turkey was the best in girls’ competition, defeating Serbia in a very close contest in the finals.
The Czech girls’ basketball team had an excellent showing, beating Belgium in the finals after a successful group qualification and play-off rounds. Spain’s boys’ basketball team was a major favorite in the tournaments and age group, and losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s team was an upset in the finals. Dzanan Musa and company defeated Spain by 89:79 and thus deserved the gold. Janan Musa was a clear MVP of the basketball tournament and was the highest scoring player in the finals with 26 points. Giorgi Bitadze of Georgia demonstrated his talent despite Georgia’s overall disappointing performance in basketball. Bitadze, if nurtured properly, will play in the national team in years to come.
Tennis player Lucie Kankova of the Czech Republic took the gold medal in the girls’ singles, while the boys’ singles was won by Adrian Andreev from Bulgaria. The latter made a small sensation in the finals when he defeated the first seeded Israeli, Yshai Oliel, in a close match 4:6 6:4 6:1.
Next Summer the European Youth Olympic Festival will take place in the city of Gyor in Hungary. The future host country also showed excellent results. The delegation won 23 (9–3–11) medals and took the fourth place, 16 of which (8–3–5) were earned by swimmers, and the greatest contribution was made by 14-year-old Ajna Evelin Kesely, who was peerless in 4 disciplines and only fell to second place in 100m freestyle.
Janez Kocijancic, the President of European Olympic Committee, declared that the EYOF was an important event for the future careers of the young athletes.
“The young athletes have shown excellence and that they have a great sense of fair play, friendship, and respect. The athletes of this Festival have begun their Olympic careers. I hope they will treasure this experience and use it as a springboard to achieve ever greater things in the years to come. They have performed to the highest levels and no doubt will perform with distinction at future Olympic Games. They are a great credit to their countries.”
The 13th Youth Olympic Festival finished with the Closing Ceremony, which was held in the Olympic Village on August 1. The ceremony included a parade with the flags of the 50 participating European countries; an address by Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia; and a statement from Kocijancic on the official closing of EYOF Tbilisi 2015.
“During this week I was a witness of sportsmen’s hard work and outstanding skills, professionalism, team work and fair competition. I know that I express the feelings that bring together tens of thousands of viewers in Tbilisi and around the world; I am really proud to watch our young athletes. Your success and your spirit is our inspiration. I would like to thank everyone who was part of this event and made it real,” said Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili.
Meanwhile, Jozef Liba, COCOM Chairman, underlined that Georgia delivered on its promise by organizing an excellent Olympic Festival.
“Georgia promoted its sport, its capital city and its country as a whole in the eyes of the world. Working with these people is a huge personal experience for me. I think that we have re-written the history of Georgian sport. Georgia is left with a splendid sports infrastructure after the festival. New arenas will help Georgia sport to reach new heights,” said Liba.
Seven of eleven sports arenas were built especially for this Festival, including the new Athletics Stadium, Gymnastic Venue, Handball and Volleyball Venues, New Tbilisi Swimming Pool, as well as the Olympic Village. PM Garibashvili had announced that displaced families from the conflict regions of Georgia will receive apartments in the Olympic Village after the close of the European Youth Olympic Festival. The village is situated on 50,000 square meters of land in the Tbilisi Sea area. The complex combines nine residential buildings, one five-star hotel, a fitness center, restaurant and recreational area. Eight residential buildings will be handed over to the refugees, an act of no small significance as, at last count, Georgia is home to 263,000.598 internally displaced persons.
After the Closing, the Mayor of Tbilisi, David Narmania, handed the European Olympic Committee’s flag over to David Pekete, the representative of the city of Gyor which will be the host of the 14th summer Youth Olympic Festival in 2017.
Eka Karsaulidze