The team for the seventeenth edition of the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival has been announced.

Fifty-six Azzurrini will represent Italy at the event organised by the European Olympic Committees, dedicated to athletes aged 14 to 18, scheduled from 9 to 16 February in the Georgian cities of Bakuriani, Tbilisi and Batumi.

The Italian team will compete across all eight disciplines on the programme, with a total of 56 athletes – 19 boys and 37 girls – facing their peers from other European nations. Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, will host the hockey tournament, while the biathlon, freestyle skiing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and snowboarding events will take place on the slopes of Bakuriani. Batumi, meanwhile, will stage the figure skating and short track competitions.

Among the selected Azzurri are two athletes who were part of the delegation that topped the medal table at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games last year. Gregorio Marchelli, who will compete in snowboarding, and Giorgia Todesco, a member of the ice hockey team.

It will be the women’s ice hockey team that kicks off the competitions, facing Finland in the first match of the group stage, scheduled for Friday 7 February at the Tbilisi Ice Arena.

The official opening ceremony of the Bakuriani 2025 Winter EYOF will take place on 9 February.

Bakuriani 2025 takes over from the edition held in the mountains of Friuli Venezia Giulia in January 2023, where Italy achieved a record result with 21 medals: 6 golds, 8 silvers and 7 bronzes.