Baku, September 24, AZERTAC The winter edition of the 2021 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) has been postponed from February to December to safeguard all those involved in the event – in particular the young athletes – during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the European Olympic Committees. The European Olympic Committees (EOC) agreed to the decision today together with the local organisers of the Vuokatti 2021 EYOF. The new dates for the continent’s leading multi-sport event for athletes aged 14-18 are 11-18 December.“This was by no means an easy decision to take,” said EOC Acting President Niels Nygaard. “For many months now we had hoped against hope that the pandemic would improve enough to safely host Vuokatti 2021 on schedule. Sadly, it was not to be, but postponing the EYOF to December means that the vast majority of the athletes who were looking forward to competing in February will still be able to participate later in the year.”Some 1,800 athletes from 48 European National Olympic Committees were expected to take part in nine sports disciplines from 6-13 February next year prior to the postponement. On the sports programme are alpine skiing, biathlon, ice hockey, snowboarding, cross country skiing, ski jumping, short track, figure skating and Nordic combined. With the inclusion of girls’ ice hockey, Vuokatti stands poised to become the most gender-balanced in the event’s history.