Full House, Fantastic Mood - How the EYOF Gyor Started

16 thousand bracelets flashing together, loud cheers, the EYOF-Flame, breathtaking productions, thousand selfies during the team entries, Hungarian and world star performers and lots of tears of joy – we could briefly recap the Sunday evening like this, when the XIV. Summer edition European Youth Olympic Festival got started with an extraordinary Opening Ceremony in Győr.

In the first part we entered a magic world with the help of Adrienn Bánhegyi World and European Champion skipping rope performer, the Ballet Company of Győr, the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dance Company of the National Theatre of Győr, the Vaskakas Puppet Theatre and almost 200 other dancer, acrobat and extreme athlete.

The story:

At the beginning of the Opening Ceremony we enter a perfect and beautiful world, but the idyll is soon destroyed by a huge storm and the up to that point colourful square loses its colours, everything turns black and white and from happy to sad. The brave girl takes upon herself a mission, to dive into the magic world and take back all the colours.

Our hero arrives firstly at the giant’s territory. Six huge puppets and sixty dancers created a bazaar atmosphere on the stage, where the typical, well-known songs of the nations resounded, making a real big chaos amongst the puppets. The tension was eased by our hero and as a reward she got the red colour back. The next path of the girl led to a colourful flower meadow thirsting for water, where the living world of the field was represented by the dancers and artists.

The girl took back the blue colour here, so she can go to another more special place, andshe arrives in the extreme game land wrapped in yellow. The participants had fun,practiced extreme sports and danced during the show. They juggled with the football and basketball, they poised with daggers, BMX bikers, break dancers, people jumping on a

trampoline and skipping rope performers heightened the mood. And for one everything got slower, the world stopped around them, the toys went low in lack of energy.

Our heroine gives back this energy through her very special skill, so taking back the yellow colour also. The arrival at home brings happiness and colours into this magical world, so the huge square can rearrange itself into the original condition and the perfection can be re-established.

16 thousand participants thanks to the tiny bracelet

One speciality of the opening was that the attendants were not just passive viewers but active participants of the event. With the help of the special bracelets, given at the beginning of the program, they could contribute to the fascinating scene. They created storm, or painted the spectators terrace in the colour of the actual atmosphere, or they showed the national flags in a stadium-size.

The official Opening Ceremony

The show hosts of the Opening Ceremony Nóra Ördög and Zoltán Szujó welcomed the several thousand people mass in the ETO Stadium, where Zsolt Borkai, Mayor of Győr, President of the European Youth Olympic Festival Organising Committee recited his speech firstly. Zsolt Borkai said: "This is a wonderful moment, that we can live together and that we have dreamt of since 2011. We are preparing for almost seven years now to welcome Europe in Hungary, and to welcome the 14-18 year old athletes of fifty countries and every dear guest. Now with the Opening Ceremony today an exciting week starts, what we were eagerly waiting: athletes, judges, fans, volunteers, guests and the organisers also. We allbecome members of a big family for this period, thanks to the EYOF.

The President of the Organising Committee highlighted: „As an athlete myself, I know what a great strength, what impulse it can give if you can match your talents under good circumstances, in front of lots and lots of fans, and with excellent opposites. I’m proud, that we can host the EYOF, Hungary’s first Olympic multisport event! This is a complex event which not only stages competitions in ten different sports but also reveal Hungary’s culture, the treasures and beauty of Győr, and the hospitality of the Hungarian people."

Zsolt Borkai reminisced, most of the competitions will be held in completely new, world class sport establishments, he thanked the government of Hungary for realizing that, and for supporting Győr, so it not only remained a dream, but now came to reality, that we can provide a home to our first domestic Olympic event!

Good evening my Hungarian friends! – started his welcoming speech in Hungarian the acting President of the European Olympic Committee on the Opening Ceremony, he especially welcomed the citizens of Győr. He highlighted, Hungarian is one of the oldest Olympic nations, they won 176 gold medals on Olympic Games, and one of them is won by Zsolt Borkai, standing beside him. "Every athlete has a right to be proud of their country, and every country has the right to be proud of its athletes." He emphasized, that the EYOF is one of the oldest Olympic events, which was organised firstly in Brussels 26 years ago.

Janez Kocijancic said on the press conference preceding the Opening Ceremony, that the key of success of Hungary’s first Olympic event is the flexible and attentive organisation, and seeing this the European Youth Olympic Festival in Győr may be the best of all times. Miklós Seszták Minister of National Development said in his speech, that Győr will be the centre of the European youth sport for the following days. „We Hungarians are a real sporty nation. We are known as healthy in body and in mind, brave and proud nation on the whole world. We trust our strengths we believe in our skills." According to the Minister of National Development, from the experience of the first days we can conclude that we tested well for the organisation too."

The Minister of National Development said as he officially opened the event:

"It was always an honourable and a gladly taken challenge, when we could host an important competition. Important competition, as the European Youth Olympic Festival, which is the third biggest event of the Olympic movement, the most prestigious observation of the young supply athletes. The championships organised domestically call for lots and lots of young people. More and more people will start to sport, more and more will explore the joy in movement."

The program continued with the oaths of the athletes, the judges, and last but not least the trainers. After the entry of the Olympic Flag, Nóra Fehér artistic gymnast in the name of the competitors, Rita Kőbán, two times Olympic Champion kayaker in the name of trainers, Iván Petrov leader of the Swimming Sport Association Győr in the name of the judges recited the oath.

Team entries

One of the most awaited part of the evening, the entries of the athletes followed. The Opening Ceremony in Győr was probably a special experience for the athletes too, since the teams were not arriving from outside to the arena but they sat on the spectator’s terrace, so they could enjoy together the overture of our first Olympic event. The pageant

of the athletes from fifty countries is elevating in itself, which was increased further with the view of the gigantic national flags projected by the mentioned bracelets.

The path of the Flame

We could follow the path of the EYOF-Flame through a short film; famous athletes ran with it towards the venue of the Opening Ceremony, where it finally arrived. Great idols of the present, like Krisztián Berki, Olympic Champion artistic gymnast, László Keglovich Olympic Champion football player, Anita Görbicz, three times Champions League winner handball player, Károly Palotai Olympic Champion football player, Zoltán Kammerer, threetimes Olympic Champion kayaker gave the torch from hand to hand, until finally Krisztina Egerszegi, five times Olympic Champion swimmer lit the EYOF-Flame in the Y letter of the giant Győr label placed on the stage.

In the last part of the Opening Ceremony real party atmosphere dominated the ETO Stadium. The stars of the most special talent show of Hungary, the Virtuózok took the stages. The Kerekes Band also performed. After the Hungarian tunes followed one favourite of the young people The Biebers, the writer and performer of the official song of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Győr with their song Here and Now. After the Hungarian performers a real world star followed and turned the opening of the Olympic event into an enormous party. It show the status of the EYOF good, that Steve Aoki accepted the invitation gladly and with great pleasure, the Japanese-American musician

didn’t want to be left out from the European Olympic event either. Steve is considered as one of the most successful Dj-s of the world, and he’s a big favourite of the age group of the EYOF also. He is well-known for putting up a great show and it wasn’t the other way on Sunday evening either.

The competitions get started on Monday. The 14-18 year young people can match their skills in ten sports, 130 competitions on the European Youth Olympic Festival. During the one week 2500 athletes from 50 countries will compete and represent their nation in Győr, the Hungarian colours are represented by 152 young competitors.

For more information, please contact:

European Youth Olympic Festival Győr 2017 Organizing Committee

Email: press@gyor2017.hu

Web: www.gyor2017.com

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics iswww.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only