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VIII Latvian Youth Olympics will take place from 5th to 7th of July in Jelgava, bringing together around 3000 young athletes who will participate in 29 disciplines. The most athletic municipality in Latvia and the best Latvian athletes in summer Olympic sports will be determined during the Olympics.

The Latvian Youth Olympics is national sports competition, involving teams from various regions and major cities, with the purpose of determining the best young Latvian athletes, and an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that the city of Jelgava is ready to organise large-scale sports competitions. At the same time, athletes will compete in several disciplines for the right to represent Latvia at the European Youth Olympic Festival, which will take place next summer in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The Olympic flame, which was lit in Ventspils, where a special place for lighting the Olympic flame was established in 2004 before the 1^st Latvian Summer Olympics, started its symbolic journey from Ventspils to Jelgava on 13th of June. This flame will be used to light the large flame at the Zemgale Olympic Centre (ZOC) stadium during the opening ceremony of the Latvian Youth Olympics at 21 o’clock on 5^th of July.

The city of Jelgava will provide the VIII Latvian Youth Olympics with sports bases, the necessary inventory, as well as the referees. The city is also responsible for all organisation matters related to the opening and closing ceremony, the cultural programme, awarding of the athletes and the competition schedule.

This will be one of the rare Olympics, where most of the competitions will take place in the city, which is organising this sports forum, while the rest will be held in its vicinity.

The biggest event of the Olympics will be the opening ceremony, which might bring together around 2500 participants. The Zemgale Olympic Centre will take most of the load providing venue for the rhythmic gymnastics, athletics, volleyball, BMX and also football finals.

The competitions will be held also in the facilities of Primary School No 4, Secondary School of Technologies, Elementary Boarding School No 2, Jelgava Sports Hall at 44a Mātera Street, the City Sports Hall at 6 Raiņa Street, Jelgava Regional Sports Centre at 8 Aviācijas Street, in the Sports Centre of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, sports base of the “Jelgava” Football Club at 6 Kārklu Street, “Zemgale” Sports and Recreational Complex, Pasta Island and on the field in front of the castle, where archery competitions will be held.

The city of Jelgava will take part with its own team, which will consist of around 200 athletes competing in all disciplines represented at the sports schools or clubs of the city.

The traffic intensity in the city may increase during the Olympics; there will be more people on the streets and at public catering venues, but there are no special restrictions planned in the city.

Two Latvian cities — Jelgava and Daugavpils — applied for the right to organise the Olympics and their applications were considered at the meeting of the Latvian Olympic Committee (LOC). After presentation of the applications of both cities, Jelgava was declared winner.

You can read more about organisation of the Latvian Youth Olympics here.