Post-flood Tbilisi ready for European Youth Olympic Festival

The Olympic flame has arrived in Borjomi – its latest stop on its nationwide tour ahead of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF), but without a festive celebration in recognition of those who lost their lives in the deadly June 13 flash flood.

The arrival of the flame in Borjomi comes days after officials visited Georgia on an unscheduled visit, and assessed all competition venues would be ready to host next month’s international competition, commonly known as Tbilisi 2015.

The Organising Committee of the 2015 EYOF decided not to welcome the flame in Borjomi with a festive celebration as a way to pay appropriate respect to the victims of the Tbilisi flood. The Olympic flame will continue its journey across the country without celebrations in each host city.

The flame will continue its pre-planned route and be symbolically lit in all 67 municipalities of the country. The torch has already visited 29 administrative centres and its journey will end in Tbilisi ahead of next month’s competition.

The Olympic torch was lit in Athens – the oldest city of Greece and the home of the Olympic Games – on May 26 to mark the beginning of the EYOF 2015, as well as symbolically recognising Georgia’s Independence Day.

Meanwhile last week a group of EYOF officials visited Georgia and inspected competition venues following the June 13 flash flood.

On June 19 members of the European Olympic Committee's Coordination Commission (COCOM) paid a special, unscheduled visit to Tbilisi to ensure the competition venues did not pose any danger to competitors or EYOF activities.

The guests visited all sporting venues and inspected construction works. At the end of the visit they said Tbilisi was ready to host the EYOF opening ceremony on July 26.

Members of European Olympic Committee's Coordination Commission saw every venue and made sure that the holding of the Olympic festival was not in danger. It was a challenge but it has been accomplished. Currently all sporting arenas are practically completed; now we are installing security systems,” said chairman of the Tbilisi 2015 Organising Committee Alexi Akhvlediani.

Chairman of COCOM Josef Liba said the group’s visit to Tbilisi was "extraordinary” and not planned.

In Baku at the European Olympic Games rumours were spread that Tbilisi was drowned in water. But now we know for sure that your government and people are mobilized and rehabilitation works are underway. We are leaving Georgia satisfied and will return back in a few weeks for the Olympic Festival,” said COCOM chairman Josef Liba.

The EYOF will see more than 4,000 youth athletes from 49 European countries descend on Georgia’s capital to participate in nine sports: judo, tennis, artistic gymnastics, track cycling, track and field athletics, swimming, volleyball, handball and basketball.