The fifth Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) promises to be biggest and best yet, with more sports, more competing countries and more aspiring Olympians than ever before.

The best young athletes from Australia and around the world will converge on Sydney to compete at the Olympic venues over five days of competition from January 14 – 18 2009.

The Festival has proved its importance as a key stepping stone for young athletes towards competing at the Olympic Games.

Seventy-three AYOF athletes achieved a place in the Australian Olympic Team at the last Games in Beijing. Between them they won 22 medals across ten sports, winning five gold, six silver and 11 bronze.

Launching the Festival today, AOC President John Coates said, “The AOC is extremely proud of what has been achieved since 2001 when we staged the Festival for the first time. The results have been outstanding.”

Emma Snowsill, Sally McLellan, Jared Tallent, Anna Meares, Jessicah Schipper, Melissa Wu and Eamon Sullivan are all AYOF alumni and won medals at the Beijing Games.

One of the 2008 Olympic gold medals was won by Matthew Mitcham, who competed at the 2003 and 2005 Youth Festivals.

“It was awesome,” Mitcham said about the AYOF. “The set up and the competition format are really similar to the Olympic Games. You are living in a village community and eat in a food hall. It really did give me a taste of what was to come.”

After a successful Beijing Olympics and a looming London Games, both China and Great Britain are sending large teams. China is sending the biggest international team – 273 athletes and officials. Great Britain – 190, New Zealand – 229 and Japan – 117.

Australia will field a team of 660 athletes and officials. Many of these athletes will go on to wear the green and gold in London, some at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.

In total, 1550 athletes from 27 countries will compete across 17 sports. Athletics, gymnastics, swimming, diving, hockey, archery and fencing will all be contested at Sydney Olympic Park. The number of team sports on the program has increased from two to four, including basketball, hockey, football and water polo. In the individual sports, triathlon makes a return to the competition program.

The sport was last contested at the 2001 AYOF, when the current Olympic gold medallist Emma Snowsill won the gold medal.

While athletes from Chile, Norway and Kazakhstan will compete at the Festival for the first time. Chile is sending a male football team, Norway a beach volleyball team and Kazakhstan athletes to compete in canoe/kayak slalom.

The AOC has committed $4.6 million towards hosting the Festival, up from $3.3 million in 2007. In addition to facilitating a stepping stone towards competing at the Olympic Games, the AYOF is a great opportunity for spectators to “see tomorrow’s Olympians today”.

Entry to all sporting events is free and makes for a great summer school holiday activity.

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 14 January at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and showcases the best of the 2008 Schools Spectacular performances presented by NSW public schools. Tickets are available from TicketMaster – www.ticketmaster.com.au.

Athletes competing at the 2009 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.

A dedicated AYOF website will be available at olympics.com.au in early December.

AOC