Good news for the ÖJV offspring: No fewer than nine judoka, above all under-18 European Championship bronze medalist Ronald Proell (-81/UJZ Mühlviertel/OÖ), will be at the 16th summer edition of the European Youth Olympic Games (European Youth Olympic Festival/EYOF) in Banská Bystrica (SVK, July 24th – 30th, 2022) for Austria. In addition to the 16-year-old from Upper Austria, the following are also nominated: Elena Dengg (-70/ESV Sanjindo Bischofshofen/S), Ronja Harrer (-48/JZ Rapso Linz/OÖ), Tanzilia Muntsurova (-44/Askö Reichraming/OÖ), Larissa Sickinger (-52/Judogym Salzburg/S), Lisa Tretnjak (-63/SU Noricum Leibnitz/ST); Hubert Illmer (-100/ESV Sanjindo Bischofshofen/S), Alexander Kaserer (-66/Askö Bad Ischl/Upper Austria) and Issa Naschcho (-73/LZ Multikraft Wels/Upper Austria). The under-18 national coaches Martin Grafl and Bernhard Weißsteiner will be there as coaches.
The overall ÖOC delegation consists of 77 people. Around 3000 young athletes from 48 nations are expected in Slovakia in the last week of July. A total of ten sports and 119 events are on the program. The Youth Olympic Team Austria 2022 will be represented in seven sports (badminton, judo, athletics, road cycling, swimming, tennis, gymnastics).
“We were relatively generous with the quotas this year in order to be able to offer as many talents as possible a first Olympic experience,” says ÖOC President Karl Stoss.
“The primary goal at the EYOF is to gradually introduce our young athletes to international performance standards and Olympic dimensions. The then 17-year-old discus thrower Lukas Weißhaidinger made his first international mark in 2009 with two EYOF gold medals in Tampere. Now, 13 years later, he is number 3 in the world and an Olympic, World and European bronze medalist. Between then and now there is a distance of 24 meters and more than 120,000 training throws. We wish that Luki’s path finds as many imitators as possible. It doesn’t matter in which Olympic sport,” confirms Secretary General Peter Mennel. There is also a prominent former EYOF winner in judo: Stephan Hegyi (+100) won EYOF gold in Tbilisi in 2015, last year he took part in the traditional Olympic Games in Tokyo for the first time.
At the last EYOF summer edition in 2019 in Baku (AZE), Austria was able to celebrate a gold medal by Oluwatosin Ayodeji in the long jump. In 2017 in Györ (HUN) there were a total of five medals – 1 x gold (Ingeborg Grünwald/long jump), 1 x Silber (Samuel Gaßner/Judo, -60 kg) and 3 x bronze (Leo Köhldorfer/400 m hurdles, Sinja Kraus/tennis singles, Anna Baumgartner/1,500 m).
Facts and figures about the Youth Olympic Team Austria 2022:
The hot EYOF countdown for Banská Bystrica traditionally starts with the kick-off on July 13th and 14th in the JUFA Hotel in Spital am Pyhrn. Departure for Slovakia nine days later. For the ÖJV judo team, the judo summer school will take place in Rauris (July 8th – 13th).
• 28 girls and 19 boys are in the red-white-red squad for Banská Bystrica. Upper Austria has the most active players with 13, ahead of Salzburg (7), Lower Austria and Vorarlberg (6 each). All nine federal states are represented by athletes.
• When it comes to sports, the track and field athletes (with 12 starters), swimmers (11) and judoka (9) set the tone in the ÖOC team.
• The youngest athlete is gymnast Valentina Frint. The Viennese celebrates her 14th birthday on July 25, before the start of the EYOF gymnastics competitions. The oldest athlete is the 18-year-old judo lightweight fighter Issa Naschcho (date of birth: 01/16/2004, weight class: -73 kg).
• Family business: Karin Mayr-Krifka (former 100m and 200m sprinter) is the 45-time LA state champion and third place at the 2003 World Indoor Championships compete in three competitions: over 100 m, in the high jump and in the medley relay.
