Olympic.org picks out some of the most eye-catching performances from former Youth Olympic Games (YOG) athletes in recent weeks, as the YOG continue to provide a springboard to the international stage.

Venus and Serena, Serena and Venus: the Olympic and global saga of the Williams sisters has made tennis history over the last two decades. It was Venus who first made her mark at the Games, winning the women’s singles at Sydney on 27 September 2000. Nineteen years later, she is the only five-time Olympic tennis medallist, and is hoping to do well again at Tokyo 2020!

Fierce racing and a serene setting helped contribute to a successful canoe sprint test event at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo. The Ready Steady Tokyo Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe event, organised by Tokyo 2020, saw many of the sport’s top competitors participate.  

The Argentinian basketball team pulled off one of the greatest feats in their country’s sporting history by winning the gold medal at Athens 2004, having knocked out the USA in the semi-final. They were the “Golden Generation” who inspired basketball players throughout Argentina, including the teenagers who shone at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Buenos Aires 2018. Luis Scola was a key part of that 2004 triumph, and has remained a crucial member of the team which reached the final of the 2019 FIBA World Cup and, in doing so, qualified for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of the 3rd Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG), olympic.org highlights some of the young athletes who have gone on to make their name on the global stage since shining in Buenos Aires.

On 1 October 1988 in Seoul, Hitoshi Saitō achieved something nobody had managed before: he successfully defended the title won four years earlier in Los Angeles, the first Japanese judoka to achieve this double at the Games, and the first in the heavyweight category. This secured his place in the history of his sport, before he went on to coach the successful Japanese judokas at Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. 

On 1 October 1988, in winning the final at the Olympic Games in Seoul, German tennis player Steffi Graf achieved what no one else had done before or has done since. Her gold medal came after victories in the Grand Slam tournaments at Melbourne, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and New York, giving rise to a new term: “the Golden Slam”. The world of tennis is still waiting for another player capable of such a feat in the same calendar year!

After winning a second consecutive Olympic gold medal among the heavyweight judokas, on 22 September 2000 in Sydney, David Douillet hung up his kimono, with a list of achievements that made him the biggest star in his sport in the 1990s. His successor in France is none other than Teddy Riner, who intends to go one better by winning a third title in Tokyo in 2020!

Rio 2016 sailing gold medallist Hannah Mills has launched the Big Plastic Pledge – a global campaign to unite athletes and fans around the issue of plastic pollution. The campaign is supported by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as part of its commitment to the UN Clean Seas initiative.