The next Olympics are not in London - they are in Innsbruck, Austria from 13-22 January 2012 and as an emerging force in winter sports Australia will be well represented.

Today the Australian Olympic Committee announced the first athletes selected to the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Team. This exciting new event will see over 1,000 of the world’s best 14-18 year olds contest all winter Olympic sports.

Nine of Australia’s finest young winter talent were named by Chef de Mission Alisa Camplin at Canterbury Ice Rink in Sydney. A further six are expected to join the Team as qualifications continue until mid-December, for a likely Team of 15 Australian athletes.

Among the athletes named was snowboarder Alexandra Fitch from the New South Wales Central Coast. Hoping to reach the heights of her idol Torah Bright, Fitch is competing in halfpipe and the new slopestyle event. Fitch has just returned from a training block in New Zealand before sitting her School Certificate exams.

Cross country skier Lucy Glanville received the ultimate birthday present by being named in the Team after her 17th birthday yesterday, alongside Melbourne’s Alex Gibson.
Jack Millar and Claudia Leggett who have transitioned from alpine events to ski cross with help from Olympians Jenny Owens and Scott Kneller were also named.

At the selection announcement, Sharnita Crompton and Sam Hodic demonstrated the Ice Hockey Skills Challenge, a new event for the Winter Youth Olympic Games. The pair secured their place by excelling at the qualifying event in Finland earlier in the year. 

The only athletes selected today but unable to attend the announcement were the two alpine skiers but both had good excuses. Harry Laidlaw is in the United States at his Ski Academy in Vermont after a training block in Chile and Greta Small has already got the jump on her competitors by relocating to her northern winter home in Pitztal, Austria a stone’s throw away from where she will compete in 2012.

Small is big on talent, ambition and results. The determined athlete is holding nothing back in her quest to be Australia’s next alpine star, following the path of her idol and Olympic medallist Zali Steggall.

“I’m really pumped to be competing for Australia at the Youth Olympics,” Small who turned 16 on Sunday said when she learnt of her selection in Austria. “It’s huge here in Innsbruck. Everyone is talking about it and there are posters everywhere.”

Waiting in the wings to join the Team are youngsters like Alex Ferlazzo - our own Cool Runnings story. Ferlazzo is a luger who heralds from Townsville and slid on ice for the first time this year. He will battle out the Junior World Cup circuit in November and December to secure a place at the Games.

In addition to luge, ice hockey, skiing and snowboard, Australia hopes to contest biathlon, figure skating and short track speed skating.

In recent times Australian athletes have continued to defy the odds becoming somewhat of a permanent fixture on podiums in not only the Winter Olympics but World Championships and World Cups.

The next crop of exciting Australian stars have plenty of role models and now they will benefit from the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games as a stepping stone to Sochi 2014 or Pyeongchang 2018.

Dual Olympic aerial skiing medallist Alisa Camplin was at the forefront of Australia’s emergence when she won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002. Now almost 10 years on she will lead this group of teenagers as the 2012 Australian Winter Youth Olympic Team Chef de Mission.

“I’m thrilled to lead such a vibrant young team of talented athletes,” Camplin said at the Team Announcement.

“The Winter Youth Olympics will provide a valuable pathway for this historic Team and I’m sure it will accelerate the development of everyone and keep them being the best that they can be. I know I would have got a lot out of an event like this if it was around when I was striving towards senior Olympic success.”

The Games will see new events such as snowboard and ski slopestyle, ski halfpipe and women’s ski jumping on the program, a trial run for their full Olympic debut in Sochi in 2014.

A number of disciplines have adapted events such as the ice hockey individual skills challenge, as well as mixed gender and mixed nation relays.

Australians continue to compete over the coming months with the final team to be announced mid-December.

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympian in moguls Ramone Cooper, who is also the National Pathway Coordinator for Ski and Snowboard Australia, has been appointed as a Young Ambassador for Innsbruck by the IOC. He will be heavily involved with the Australian Team in a mentoring capacity.

2012 WINTER YOUTH OLYMPIC TEAM as at 17 October 2011

Alpine Skiing
Greta Small, 16 – born Wangaratta, VIC, lives Perth / Austria
Harry Laidlaw, 15 – Melbourne, VIC (based out of Vermont, USA)

Cross Country Skiing
Lucy Glanville, 17 – Sydney & Cooma, NSW
Alex Gibson, 17 – Melbourne, VIC

Freestyle Skiing – Ski Cross
Claudia Leggett, 15 – Brisbane, QLD
Jack Millar, 16 - Wollongong, NSW
Harry Laidlaw, 15 – Melbourne, VIC (based out of Vermont, USA)

Ice Hockey
Sharnita Crompton, 17 – Erina, NSW
Sam Hodic, 15 – Mornington Peninsula, VIC

Snowboard - Halfpipe & Slopestyle
Alex Fitch, 16 – Norah Head, NSW