A six-day summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) kicked off with an opening ceremony at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi on Sunday evening, marking the launch of the largest sporting event ever hosted by Georgia. 

A screengrab from TV footage of opening ceremony of the summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, July 26, 2015.

Tbilisi won the bid to host the biennial games for 14-18-year-old athletes in 2010, beating out the Czech city of Brno.

A screengrab from TV footage of opening ceremony of the summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, July 26, 2015.

Over 3,200 athletes from 50 countries are competing in nine sports, including artistic gymnastics; athletics; basketball; cycling; handball; judo; swimming; tennis, and volleyball.
 
Competitions will be held at ten venues. Five of them – swimming pool, gymnastics, volleyball and athletics arenas, as well as tennis courts – are newly built facilities, and others have been reconstructed.

About GEL 65 million has been spent on this infrastructure, according to the chairman of EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee Alexi Akhvlediani. 

In total GEL 79 million was spent to prepare and organize the event since 2012, according to the Tbilisi City Hall.

Zurab Zviadauri, who is Georgia’s first Olympic Gold medalist since country’s independence, was the final torchbearer.

Zurab Zviadauri, who is Georgia’s first Olympic Gold medalist since country’s independence, was the final torchbearer. But when Zviadauri, who is now a member of parliament, placed the torch inside the cauldron the flame went out and at that moment footage of the live broadcast on television was cut to aerial view of the stadium. Whether it was part of a script or not, the moment was awkward, leaving many viewers wondering if the flame died out. Seconds later the flame was lit on a hilltop overlooking the stadium.

Athletes’ Village, which includes nine apartment buildings, accommodating more than 3,400 athletes and team officials, is located at Tbilisi Sea, an artificial reservoir, in the suburb of the capital city. The area is part of a larger residential complex, which is being developed by a private Chinese company Hualing. At the opening ceremony of the Athlete’s Village on July 20, PM Irakli Garibashvili said that after the EYOF Tbilisi 2015 is over, the government will purchase eight apartment buildings from the investor and hand them over to the internally displaced persons.

“I am extremely happy about what I have seen, they have done an absolutely wonderful job and the venues are in great shape,” President of the European Olympic Committees, Patrick Hickey, said on July 26 after touring most of the venues. 

During the fireworks at the opening ceremony a small portion of empty section of the stadium briefly caught fire but it was quickly extinguished. In another mishap, the Olympic flag was raised upside down.

Ballet dancer, Irma Nioradze, performs during the EYOF Tbilisi 2015 opening ceremony at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium. She was playing Medea from the myth of Argonauts and Golden Fleece. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

 
Opening ceremony of the summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, July 26, 2015. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

A Georgian folk dance, Samaia, performed during the opening ceremony of the EYOF Tbilisi 2015. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

Georgian folk dances, representing various regions of the country, were performed as young men in traditional garments were holding signs reading the names of country’s various cities, among them were “Sokhumi” and “Tskhinvali”. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee 

A screengrab from TV footage of opening ceremony of the summer European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, July 26, 2015.

The Georgian National Ballet Sukhishvili performs military dance, Khorumi, during the opening ceremony of the EYOF Tbilisi 2015. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

137 Georgian athletes, who are participating in the EYOF Tbilisi 2015, parade during the opening ceremony. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

Apart from Georgia, the crowd at the stadium gave the loudest cheers to the Ukrainian team during the parade of athletes at the opening ceremony. Photo: EYOF Tbilisi 2015 organizing committee

Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili, who attended the ceremony together with wife and two sons, formally declared the games opened during the ceremony.

Other senior Georgian officials were also present at the opening ceremony, but one notable absentee was President Giorgi Margvelashvili.

President Margvelashvili congratulated opening of the games and wished success to the athletes through a Facebook post, which was followed by dozens of comments from Georgian Facebook users, many of them asking why the President was absent at the ceremony. PM Garibashvili, who is often at odds with the President on various issues, criticized Margvelashvili most recently on July 24 for his decision to pardon a former local official in Khoni, who is brother of opposition UNM lawmaker and who was serving a 3.5-year prison term for embezzlement, which he was denying as politically motivated.

Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan and President of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev were among the foreign guests, attending the opening ceremony.