Pajulahti will host the biggest European Para Youth Games so far

Pajulahti Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Finland will host the European Para Youth Games for the second time on Summer 2022. As the deadline for the first entries passed on December it is already clear that next summer’s event will be the biggest European Para Youth Games so far.

According the first entries there are already 711 participants from 22 European countries. Total of 459 of those participants are athletes. Few of the countries have informed the organizers that they’ll tell their participant numbers in few weeks. That means the total participant number will rise above 800, the number of participating countries will be more than 25 and there will be more than 500 athletes. In the EPYG 2019 – also arranged in Pajulahti – there were 600 participants of which 350 were athletes.

The organizing committee of EPYG 2022 confirms it is still possible to send late entries during the first weeks of year 2022.

”As the first entries came in we were delighted to notice that there is a strong need for this type of event for young para athletes around the continent! I’m sure that the positive experiences from the previous EPYG arranged in Pajulahti encouraged most of the countries to decide to send bigger teams this time around. This gives us a huge boost to carry on with our preparations for this unique event”, says Tero Kuorikoski, the Secretary General of EPYG 2022.

The European Para Youth Games is a multi sport event. The sports in the EPYG 2022 are athletics, swimming, boccia, table tennis, goalball, wheelchair basketball, judo, sitting volleyball and showdown. Sitting volleyball is a new sport compared to the EPYG 2019. All the sports will be arranged in Pajulahti apart from athletics which will be held in the Rakokivi athletic field near Pajulahti and swimming which will be held in the Mäkelänrinne swimming hall in Helsinki.

”If you are interested in the future of the para sports in Europe there is no better opportunity than this event! The significance of the European Para Youth Games has been on the rise for years and it can be seen in those huge participating numbers from the big European countries. It is also great to see some of the smaller nations bringing athletes to Pajulahti”, says Riikka Juntunen, the chair of the EPYG 2022 organizing committee.

European Para Youth Games have been organized since 2011. The EPYG 2022 will be the sixth edition of the event and the biggest one so far. The EPYG 2022 will be held in the Pajulahti Olympic and Paralympic Training Center from 27th of June to 4th of July 2022.

Further information: Event Manager Laura Kittelä, +358 44 7755 212, Tämä sähköpostiosoite on suojattu spamboteilta. Tarvitset JavaScript-tuen nähdäksesi sen.

Competition page: EPYG2022.fi

Photo: Juhani Järvenpää