The fourth ever Youth Winter Olympics opens in South Korea on Friday and there's a new Cool Runnings in town as three young Olympians from Tunisia are set to make history and become the first-ever athletes from the African country to participate in any Winter Olympics.
After 'The Snow Leopard' from Ghana competed in Vancouver, a Kenyan Alpine Skier, is Issa Gachingiri Laborde Dit Pere, the son of a ski patroller from Alpe d'Huez, will also be competing.
The Winter Youth Olympic Games, Gangwon 2024, will reuse several of the facilities from the 2018 Winter Olympics, they're also the first of the Youth Olympics, which launched in Innsbruck in 2012, ever to be staged in Asia. Teenagers aged from 15 to 18 take part.
The young Kenyan ski racer along with Tunisian bobsleighers Jonathan Lourimi, Beya Mokrani and Sophie Ghorbel (pictured above) are all part of the PyeongChang Legacy Foundation's New Horizons Camp, which helps athletes from non-winter sport nations and thus helps facilitate the emergence of new winter sport nations.
"I played soccer and hockey and watched sports since I was young. Then, by chance, we found a program in Korea that supports winter sports. It [bobsleigh] is a sport that's little known in Tunisia. We'll do our best to win medals not only for Gangwon 2024, but also for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina 2026," said Jonathan Lourimi.
The programme – which is an integral part of International Olympic Committee's requirements from host cities – has so far enabled athletes from countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand to develop their winter sports skills, and support the establishment of national federations.
For the 2024 Games, 25 athletes representing Brazil (7), Thailand (6), Mongolia (4), Tunisia (3), Jamaica (1), Singapore (1), Kenya (1), Chinese Taipei (1), and Columbia (1) have qualified from the PLF New Horizons Academy.
For all information on the 4th Winter Youth Olympic Games taking place in Gangwon, South Korea, which will run until 1st February, visit: https://olympics.com/en/gangwon-2024/