Throughout the career, every athlete has a moment he will never forget: the first record he broke, the first win on the iPhone, the jump into the water in a major competition or the first appearance at the Olympic Games.
Quite a few athletes come there and get knee highs from the very status, and are dazzled by the multitude of stars around them and the attractions offered by an event of this magnitude.
Perhaps to prevent this situation, the European Youth Olympic Festival was established in Brussels in 1991, held once every two years, in which young people from the age of 14 to the age of 18 participate.
The event is a gateway to the Olympic Games by providing top athletes with a first taste of a major event, while at the same time encouraging more young people to engage in sports and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Today (Sunday), in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, the 16th summer edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival will be launched, with the participation of 3,600 athletes, coaches and staff members from 48 countries, who will compete in ten Olympic sports in the coming week.
Linui Ashram.
Honorary ambassador, photo: AFP
On top of that, the Olympic Festival is not only a celebration of young elite athletes, but is also an important platform for education, peace and friendship;
Beyond the competitions, the athletes are offered fun and interactive activities, which are led by young ambassadors who share the same passion and love for sports.
The delegation from Israel, which left for the competitions last weekend, is the largest that has arrived at the event since 1995: 26 male athletes, 19 female athletes, 14 coaches and 8 staff members and the Olympic champion Linoi Ashram, who was chosen as one of the 24 ambassadors of the European Olympic Committees, who aim to inspire in the young athletes.
Noam Memo.
Will he break more records?, Photo: Oren Aharoni
Over the years, Israel won 47 medals, 17 of which were gold.
A significant part of them came from athletes who later starred with an impressive career and reached the Olympic Games, such as the swimmer Yoav Gat, who won the gold in the 200-meter backstroke at this event in England in 1995;
high jumper Dima Kreuter who won the silver medal in Finland in 2009;
The tennis player Yishai Oliel who won the silver in Tbilisi, in 2015, when the judoka Raz Hershko also won the silver medal, and up to the latest editions such as the gold of the judoka Gefen Primo in 2017 or the gold of the athlete Addiso Guadia in the 5,000 meter run.
The goal is a medal
This time too, Israel would like to return with as many places on the podium as possible, and mark already now those who will be the next stars in the blue-white delegation at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics;
And who knows, maybe some of them will surprise and come to the games in Paris in about two years.
There is no Goland.
Came to make history, photo: Swimming Association
Perhaps the best-known name in the delegation is the judoka Kerem Primo, who competes in the weight category up to 63 kg, who has proven herself time and time again at these ages, when she won the silver medal at the World Youth Championships and the title of European Youth Champion last year. The 17-year-old Primo has already her baptism of fire in adulthood, but she still has a lot to prove.
The women's judo team has accustomed us to many achievements in recent times, and the one who will try to break through soon is Yuli Mishner, the runner-up of the European cadet champion for the past two years, who will compete at a weight over 78 kg.
Okan Goldin.
The youngest in the group, photo: Swimming Association
Another name that made headlines recently is the athlete Noam Memo (16), who won the silver medal in the European Under-18 Championships in the 800 meter run, held in Jerusalem, was the youngest of the participants, and will try to win a medal at the Olympic Festival in the half distance.
A large delegation came out of the swimming branch, where the eyes will be on Shain Goland (15) from Magev, who focuses on the short and medium freestyle.
Goland already managed to win three medals at the Mediterranean countries championship last October, including the silver medal in the 50m freestyle.
Also, Goland has broken several Israeli records up to the age of 14 over the past few years, in the various freestyles.
She is part of a group of high-quality swimmers who grew up in Meshgav, and the best known of them all is the Olympic swimmer Aviv Barzali.
Another name is Okan Goldin, who turned 15 last week, just after he was part of Israel's youth team for the European Championships in Romania, where he was the youngest swimmer on the team.
He broke through in the last year and managed to break several Israeli youth records in the backstroke, including some for his own mature age groups.
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