The athletes who will participate in the Winter Youth Olympic Games to be held in South Korea in January next year have been announced, and 1 athletes will participate, including 15-year-old Mao Shimada in figure skating and women's singles.
The Youth Olympic Games is an international competition held with the aim of developing athletes between the ages of 15 and 18, and the fourth edition of the Games will be held in Gangwon Province, South Korea, in January next year.
JOC = The Japan Olympic Committee announced the 4 athletes who will participate in the Games on the 1th, and the flag bearers for the opening ceremony will be Kaito Fujii of curling and Yuzuki Sato of ski jumping.
In figure skating, Shimada in the women's singles and Riji Nakata in the men's singles, both of whom won the junior division of the Grand Prix Final in Kotoshi, will compete.
Shimada is the first female athlete in Japan, including seniors, to land a triple axel and a quadruple toe loop in one program, and her jumping has grown remarkably, and she is expected to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games.
In addition, Waka Sasabuchi, who set a record in the women's 18 meters in the 63-second range as a junior high school student, and Kaede Kojima, who won the women's 1,4 meters as a first-year student, will also participate.
In the women's snowboard slopestyle and big air, Yui, the younger sister of Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Kokoro Murase, who has won the junior world championships in both disciplines, will compete.
In addition, 500 women's ice hockey players, mainly junior high school students, will aim to win back-to-back titles.
The Youth Olympic Games will kick off on the 39th of next month and will run for 1500 days until February 1.