Editorial: Youth and Winter Sports

Just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lausanne—known as the “Olympic capital” since it is the home of the International Olympic Committee—had the privilege and opportunity to organise the last international sporting event not affected by the virus. The 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games was the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and was held in Lausanne between January 9 and 22, 2020. The event featured 8 sports and 16 disciplines, including ski mountaineering and women’s Nordic combined for the first time at the Olympics. A total of 1,788 athletes from 79 nations participated. Among several novelties was the location of the “Olympic village” on the campus of the University of Lausanne. The YOG was an opportunity to bring the academic and sports worlds closer together. The University of Lausanne collaborated with the IOC on various educational and scientific programmes for athletes and the public. Thus, in collaboration with IOC’s Olympic Studies Centre and several academic institutions, the Institute of Sport Sciences (ISSUL) organised the congress “Youth and winter sports” https://wp.unil.ch/ cyws20/program/ on January 7 and 8. It aimed to bring together sports scientists, coaches, and medics with an interest in winter sports, and around 200 people attended the congress. Several points (not only the pre-COVID date!) made this congress very special:

Just before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lausanne-known as the "Olympic capital" since it is the home of the International Olympic Committee-had the privilege and opportunity to organise the last international sporting event not affected by the virus. The 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games was the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and was held in Lausanne between January 9 and 22, 2020. The event featured 8 sports and 16 disciplines, including ski mountaineering and women's Nordic combined for the first time at the Olympics. A total of 1,788 athletes from 79 nations participated. Among several novelties was the location of the "Olympic village" on the campus of the University of Lausanne. The YOG was an opportunity to bring the academic and sports worlds closer together. The University of Lausanne collaborated with the IOC on various educational and scientific programmes for athletes and the public. Thus, in collaboration with IOC's Olympic Studies Centre and several academic institutions, the Institute of Sport Sciences (ISSUL) organised the congress "Youth and winter sports" https://wp.unil.ch/ cyws20/program/ on January 7 and 8. It aimed to bring together sports scientists, coaches, and medics with an interest in winter sports, and around 200 people attended the congress.
Several points (not only the pre-COVID date!) made this congress very special: 1. Free access for all UNIL students and all athletes or staff registered for the YOG with the goal of fruitful exchanges between scientists and practitioners. The Olympic village was only 200 m from the congress location, and we were visited by elite coaches. 2. This congress was officially a component of the educational program of the YOG overviewed by UNIL. 3. This congress was multidisciplinary with key notes and parallel sections on both life sciences and social sciences. We received communications about physical preparation, physiology, biomechanics, sports medicine, rehabilitation, history, sociology, management, psychology, and teaching.
The following world-class experts gave six key-note presentations: • Milena Parent (Canada)-Governance and legacy of the YOG 4. This congress was not supported by a scientific society and was a one-shot organisation connected to the YOG.

The congress was supported by Frontiers in Sport and Active
Living with the possibility for scientists to submit articles to the present Research Topic.

RESEARCH TOPIC "YOUTH AND WINTER SPORTS"
Though the Research Topic is multidisciplinary, which is in line with the content of the congress, only articles concerning exercise physiology, biomechanics, and nutrition have been published. Four articles focused on biomechanical considerations in alpine skiing: 1. Pavailler et al. assessed the differences in glide time, ski edging, and plantar pressure distribution in national and regional cross-country skiers. The elite skiers exhibited better techniques, which is evidenced by the higher relative glide time induced by a larger body mass transfer above the ski particularly at the beginning of the gliding phase.  and provided much interesting information: The highest injury incidence was recorded in freestyle skiing, followed by alpine skiing and snowboarding. The most injured body parts were the knees (30%), head and face (12%), shoulders and collarbone (10%), and lower back (9%). The most common injury types were joint and ligament injury (41%), fracture and bone stress (24%), concussion (11%), and muscle/tendon injury (11%).

Hannon et al. provided an outstanding guideline on nutrition
in youth winter sports athletes. Special considerations related to the environmental conditions as well as the maturation process in these athletes have been discussed, and energy, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and hydration have been analysed.