YOUTH OLYMPICS. The first 999 free* tickets for the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games will be made available to the public online at www.innsbruck2012.com tomorrow, 6 October 2011, marking 99 days to go until the Games open. The tickets will be distributed on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis for 24 hours starting at 7am (CET).

Local youngsters are looking forward to the first batch of free tickets for the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Seefeld and Kühtai. Photo credit: IYOGOC

There will be two types of tickets: Ceremony Tickets will give access to either the Opening Ceremony at Bergisel Stadium on 13 January 2012 or to the Closing Ceremony in Maria-Theresien-Straße on 22 January 2012, while Venue Day Tickets will grant ticket holders access to all the competitions taking place in the respective venue on that particular day. Members of the public can order two tickets per person and per competition day. All indoor events will be ticketed, while outdoor events will not require tickets.

The public will have the unique opportunity to watch the athletes compete in new exiting event formats such as Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe, Snowboard Slopestyle and Women’s Ski Jumping, which are new to the Olympic programme, as well as other innovations such as the Ice Hockey Skills Challenge and various mixed-gender and mixed-team competitions.

“This is an important milestone on the journey to the first Winter Youth Olympic Games. By offering free tickets to the public we are opening up the Games to everyone. We want to invite all sports fans, both from Austria and abroad, to be a part of this incredible new event and support these elite young athletes as they come together from countries all over the world for what will be ten days of exciting sporting competition,” commented Innsbruck 2012 CEO, Peter Bayer.

There will be four other days when free tickets will be made available to the public: 8 November 2011 (66 days to go), 11 December 2011 (33 days to go), 22 December 2011 (22 days to go) and 2 January 2012 (11 days to go).

Every ticket (both Venue Day Tickets and Ceremony Tickets) is also valid as a travel pass from 1 ½ hours before the start until 1 ½ hours after the end of the event on all public buses, trams and Nightliner night buses operating in the main Innsbruck city zone of the IVB travel network.

International visitors also have the possibility to book special visitor packages by our partner Proske, individually tailored to suit everyone’s tastes. For more information please visit www.innsbruck2012.com/en/tourism/visitor_packages .

The 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Seefeld und Kühtai will take place from 13 to 22 January 2012 and will see 1,059 athletes aged 15 to 18 from 67 nations competing in 7 sports, 15 disciplines and 63 medal events.

* A one-off handling fee of €3.50 will be charged for each ticket as well as postage costs if tickets are delivered by post.

For more information visit www.innsbruck2012.com/en/tickets

Press Release
YOG Innsbruck 2012
5 October 2011