More sports and more athletes than ever before! 

It is 100 days until the fourth edition of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF).

The AYOF continues to grow with the best young athletes from Australia and around the world converging on Sydney for five days of competition from January 17- 21 2007.

This dedicated Festival website is now live. The site features vision, an interactive screensaver, downloadable maps and the latest news. Competitor biographies will become available in the coming weeks as entries are finalised. During the Festival in January the website will also carry results and news on every sport, daily vision, downloadable audio grabs, spectator competitions, and an AYOF radio show hosted by Norman May.

With the Beijing Olympics less than two years away China is certain to send athletes they are grooming for their Games in 2008.

So too will Great Britain who are developing young talent for the 2012 London Olympics. China is sending its biggest team so far – 294 athletes and officials, Great Britain – 165, New Zealand ¬– 239, South Africa ¬– 142 , Japan – 140. Australia will number – 740.

Many will go on and wear the green and gold in Beijing. In all, over two thousand athletes and officials from five continents will take part.

Australia’s success at the World Cup has generated enormous interest in Football, one of the new sports on the program. Other new sports include Sailing and two winter sports Short Track Speed Skating and Figure Skating.

It will be the fourth time the Australian Olympic Committee has staged the Festival with the AOC investing over $10 million in the development of young athletes.

Some of the athletes to emerge from the Festival since its inception in 2001 include triathlon triple world champion, Emma Snowsill, cycling gold medallist Anna Meares and swimmers Jessicah Schipper & Travis Nederpelt.

Launching the Festival today, the AOC President John Coates said “we started with ten sports on the program in 2001 and we have grown to 16 sports in 2007. It is here at Homebush/Sydney Olympic Park where we built the stage for future generations of Australian athletes to launch their international careers”.

Twenty-eight Australian athletes from the Festivals in 2001 and 2003 represented Australia at the Athens Games in 2004. They won eight medals.

The AYOF is a great opportunity for spectators to “see tomorrow’s Olympians today”.

The Festival is being promoted to young people through schools and local government as an exciting summer holiday activity. Entry to all sporting events is free. The Festival Passport will be available from this website to obtain a complete schedule of events and go in the draw to win a series of fabulous prizes.

Like the Olympic Games, there is an Opening Ceremony, which features an athlete’s parade, raising of the Olympic flag and lighting of the festival flame.

The Opening Ceremony takes place on the evening of Wednesday 17 January at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and showcases the best of the 2006 Schools Spectacular performances presented by NSW public schools.

High profile Olympic Ambassadors have been assigned to each sport. They will encourage and mentor athletes during training whilst providing support during competition.

Athletes competing at the 2007 AYOF have worked long and hard to be selected to represent their nations. Performing in front of a home crowd will lift the performance of our athletes. So grab a group of friends, grab an Aussie flag and head out to support our young Aussie athletes.

AOC