International Olympic Committee

5 February 2024 -The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Worldwide Olympic Partners have supported efforts to engage with the next generation at the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Gangwon 2024 through a range of innovative activations.

Within the Olympic Park in Gangneung, where events such as ice hockey, speed skating and curling took place, Alibaba and Samsung each hosted showcases to help entertain fans during the Games – with a particular focus on fun activities that appeal to young people.

The Alibaba Cloud Pavilion, located opposite the Gangneung Hockey Centre, gave visitors the chance to get hands-on with some of Alibaba’s cutting-edge technology, including a virtual reality taekwondo game and a 4D action replay experience, both of which proved hugely popular with younger fans.

A display within the pavilion also highlighted some of the major milestones in Alibaba’s Olympic partnership and the contributions it has made to the digital transformation of the Games, while fans could order official Gangwon 2024 merchandise through QR codes that linked to the YOG official store on AliExpress.

Outside, Alibaba’s technology was also behind the innovative digital flame that was on display in the Olympic Park. The unique photo hotspot featured a cloud-based digital flame, powered by a content management system built by and hosted on Alibaba Cloud. By integrating real-time weather data, the backdrop of the digital flame changed to match the weather conditions in Gangwon, with fans gathering throughout the Games to snap a selfie beside the cauldron.

The nearby Samsung Galaxy Olympic Games Experience Centre, meanwhile, also engaged younger visitors at the Olympic Park in a variety of ways. In addition to the 8m-high Moongcho structure, which gave fans a chance to have their photo taken with the official mascot, Samsung’s huge, snowball-shaped dome enabled them to try out the latest Galaxy mobile devices.

Young fans were particularly drawn to the Winter Sports Game Zone, where they could compete in a hyper-realistic ski jumping game with the Galaxy S24 series, while a stamp-collecting challenge enabled them to win limited-edition Samsung-branded merchandise by engaging with every display in the Experience Centre.

Away from the Olympic Park, Allianz also looked to engage the next generation with a unique “hackathon” in the Youth Olympic Village.

The MoveNow Hackathon brought together a group of IOC Young Leaders to discuss ideas and activities that Allianz could develop to promote sport and movement amongst young people. The initiative, which forms part of Allianz’s wider MoveNow programme, focused on ideas for digital activations that could encourage the next generation to move their bodies and exercise their minds.

Worldwide Olympic Partners vital to Games-time operations

In addition to these engagement activities, the Worldwide Olympic Partners have played a key role behind the scenes at Gangwon 2024, contributing to the success of the YOG in a variety of ways.

From the advanced timekeeping technology supplied by OMEGA to the fleet of Toyota vehicles used by the Organising Committee equipped with Bridgestone tyres, Coca-Cola beverages, Visa supporting the Licensing and Atos IT support, the Worldwide Olympic Partners are vital to Games-time operations, providing support in the form of products, services, technology, expertise and staff.

Worldwide Olympic Partner Panasonic’s continued support

With the support of seed funding from the IOC and a network of mentors, the IOC Young Leaders Programme, carried out in partnership with Panasonic, continued its contribution to the IOC’s Olympism365 strategy, which brings together aligned projects and initiatives that aim to strengthen the role of sport as an important enabler of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in direct response to the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020+5. Since the programme’s launch in 2016, 166 initiatives have already been delivered.