The Italian delegation that will take part in the 15th edition of the 2022 Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), a multidisciplinary competition of the European Olympic Committees (EOC), which sees athletes aged between 14 and 18 years from all over Europe compete against each other, left this morning from Malpensa for Finland.

More than 1,000 athletes of 44 different nationalities are expected in Vuokatti. There will be 39 Italians competing (19 girls and 20 boys), who will compete in eight of the nine disciplines that characterise this European Youth Olympic Festival: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Figure Skating, Nordic Combined, Short Track, Ski Jumping and Snowboarding.

For the first time at the EYOF, as was the case at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing, the national committees were allowed to nominate two standard-bearers, one girl and one boy. For Italy, the choice fell to Nadine Laurent (Cross-Country Skiing) and Lorenzo Previtali (Short Track). Laurent, from Valle d'Aosta and a member of the Fiamme Oro, was the lead player in the European Cup this season with two successes and is the Italian junior champion in the 10km.

Previtali, born in 2005, recently won the junior rainbow relay title on the Daznica ice in a team with Alessandro Loreggia, also present in Vuokatti, Davide Oss Champer and Pietro Castellazzi.

Tomorrow at eight p.m. Finnish time, seven p.m. in Italy, the opening ceremony will take place while the first races are scheduled for Monday. Vuokatti, the organising city, together with Lathi, is hosting the event for the second time, having organised in 2001 what was then called EYOD, European Youth Olympic Days, and will be the venue for the competitions in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, short track and snowboarding. The city of Kajaani will host the ice hockey events, while ski jumping and Nordic combined will be held in Lahti.

This is the complete list of those called up, divided by federation:

ITALIAN WINTER SPORTS FEDERATION (FISI)

Biathlon
Fabiana Carpella, Davide Compagnoni, Nadege Gontel, Alex Perisutti, Mattia Piller Hoffer, Christoph Pircher, Denise Planker, Sara Scattolo.

Nordic Combined
Iacopo Bortolas, Luca Libener, Greta Pinzani, Stefano Radovan, Annika Sieff.

Ski Jumping
Asia Marcato, Martina Zanitzer

Alpine skiing
Maria Sole Antonini, Andrea Bertoldini, Emilia Mondinelli, Stefano Pizzato, Ambra Pomarè, Federico Romele, Edoardo Saracco, Beatrice Sola.

Cross country skiing
Iris De Martin Pinter, Elisa Gallo, Davide Ghio, Lucia Isonni, Nadine Laurent, Hannes Oberhofer, Alex Serafini, Andrea Zorzi.

Snowboard
Edoardo Giovannelli, Ian Matteoli.

ITALIAN ICE SPORTS FEDERATION (FISG)

Figure skating
Ginevra Lavinia Negrello, Raffaele Francesco Zich

Short Track
Margherita Betti, Alessandro Loreggia, Lorenzo Previtali, Viola Simonini.