Banská Bystrica is ready for the EYOF: Slovakia’s largest expedition wants the most medals!
Banská Bystrica is only hours away from the opening ceremony of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), in which young athletes from 48 countries of the old continent are participating. Among them, the most numerous expedition from Slovakia in the history of this event.
“We are slowly coming together. In the afternoon, we have a team meeting, and then it’s time for the pledge of the nominated athletes, who will receive the decrees from the hands of the president of the Slovak Olympic and revealed the leader of our expedition, Boris Demeter, whom we canceled on Saturday afternoon shortly before the team meeting.of the sports committee, Anton Siekel,”
At the home EYOF, Slovakia will represent the largest expedition in the history of these events: 149 athletes. The previous record was held in 2007 and 2017, when 54 talents were on the expedition. The nomination includes 70 boys and 79 girls aged 14-18, who will represent us in ten sports.
The expedition has grown significantly mainly because Slovakia, as an organized country, can field three collective sports. So ours will compete in athletics, swimming, judo, cycling, sports gymnastics, badminton, tennis, basketball, handball and volleyball.
“We should all be here by now. To all obligations during registration, those typical for the current covid era have also been added.”
“Everyone who came and stayed at our center in the high school dormitory on Tajovského Street must take the necessary test, and together with the organizing committee, we will provide our talent with the wearing of masks.” added B. Demeter, who believes that he is leading an expedition that, after the end of the event, will be proud not only of the highest number of nominees, but also of medals won.
Slovak sports hopefuls won the most in 2017 in Hungary: 1 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze. However, it should be remembered that since 1991, when the first EYOF was held in Belgium, they have never returned. At least one precious metal was obtained in Belgium in 1991 (gold), in Denmark in 1999 (bronze) and in Turkey in 2011 (bronze).
More pedestrians and cars
A large multi-sport event, which is expected to be attended by more than 6,000 accredited personsthe inhabitants of Banská Bystrica will also experience firsthand, especially with regard to parking areas and traffic restrictions in the town under Urpín.
An increased movement of pedestrians – participants who will move to individual sports grounds, but also an increased number of vehicles that will ensure the transfer of athletes is expected.
13 sports fields
He will compete in ten disciplines: in athletics, swimming, judo, tennis, badminton, cycling, sports gymnastics, volleyball, handball basketball on 13 sports grounds.
In addition to Banská Bystrica, also in Zvolen, Detva, Badín and Slovenská Ľupča. Originally, there were supposed to be eleven sports, but the organizers from Banská Bystrica, as is known, stopped by Košice. The team was assigned the event but waived the EYOF halfway through the preparation.