Three Cypriot athletes are set to take part in this year’s European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), which will take place in the northern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia from January 21 to 28.

Alpine skiers Nicolas Papachristoforou and Andrea Loizidou, and figure skater Stefania Yakovleva will be representing the island at the event. Along with them, their coaches, namely Milan Matic and Sergei Komolov, will also make the trip.

The athletes and their coaches will be accompanied by the head of the Cypriot delegation Demetris Papatheodorou.

The delegation was handed its sports equipment at the Cyprus Olympic Committee headquarters by the organisation’s vice president Yiotis Ioannides, who wished the athletes the best of luck in their endeavours.

Specifically, Papachristoforou and Loizidou will take part in three competitions, namely the super giant slalom, giant slalom and slalom, whereas Yakovleva is set to compete in two separate events on January 26 and 27.

The last EYOF was hosted by Finland in 2022 and welcomed a total of 932 athletes. Among them was Cypriot alpine skier Thalia Armeni, who will now accompany the island’s delegation in Italy as an ambassador.

Only athletes aged between 14 and 18 years old are allowed to participate in the EYOF. The disciplines are alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, Nordic combined, short-track speed skating, ski jumping and ski mountaineering. A total of 46 countries will be represented at the 2023 EYOF.

The event is run by the European Olympic Committees, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee, and was the first multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition specifically for European athletes.

There is a winter and a summer edition, which take place in two-year cycles, in odd-numbered years. Approximately 3,600 young people and their officials take part in the summer festivals, while there are around 1,600 participants at the winter editions.