Hereditary Prince Alois at the EYOF Opening Ceremony

Photo: Michael Zanghellini / Volksblatt.li

 Hereditary Prince Alois was in Tschagguns on Sunday for the opening ceremony of the 12th European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF). More than 900 athletes, representing 45 nations, will be at the Festival. Hereditary Prince Alois spoke at the opening ceremony, along with the Austrian President Heinz Fischer, to an audience of 5000 people.

 

Also in attendance were the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein Adrian Hasler, Deputy Prime Minister Thomas Zwiefelhofer  and Marlies Amann-Marxer, Liechtenstein's Minister of Infrastructure, Environment and Sport. Additionally, the European Olympics Committee (EOC) President Patrick Hickey spoke to welcome the athletes and the dignitaries to the event.

 

The motto for the Festival is Sternschnuppen, or Shooting Stars. Liechtenstein is represented in this year's games by four athletes.

 

There are some photos of the opening ceremony at Vienna Online. Hereditary Prince Alois was interviewed at a party after the opening ceremony, where he commented: "It's (the festival) a great chance to attract attention for Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein. Fortunately we just had a lot of snow so that we have nice snowy skiing areas. So I hope that we will have great and successful event ahead of us."

 

Prior to the opening ceremony, Princess Nora also spoke in an interview about how the EYOF offers young people an opportunity to learn about Olympic ideals. There's a nice video of the interview here.

 

Also, nice photos of the Liechtenstein athletes at Vaterland here and here. Further photos at Volksblatt.

 

Source: Daniel Schwendener / Vaterland