Dubai, UAE, January 16, 2018:  As the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games, OMEGA has today celebrated the 2-year countdown to the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020, together with the event’s organising committee.

When the Opening Ceremony takes place on the 10th of January 2020, Lausanne 2020 will mark the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games. Around 1,880 young athletes from over 70 nations will compete in 81 events around the Swiss city of Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, St. Moritz, and in the nearby Vaud Alps and French Jura mountains. Lausanne 2020 will be particularly notable for having the same number of male and female athletes competing, as well as being the first time that ski mountaineering appears on the Olympic Games programme.

To start the clock for the 2-year countdown, Raynald Aeschlimann, President and CEO of OMEGA, was joined by Danka Bartekova, Chair of the Olympic Coordination Commission for Lausanne 2020; Alain Zobrist, CEO of OMEGA Timing; Patrick Baumann, President of Lausanne 2020; and Ian Logan, CEO of Lausanne 2020.

During the official unveiling, Mr Aeschlimann said: “OMEGA is truly looking forward to Lausanne 2020. To be in this special location to serve the best young athletes in the world will be a great privilege. Of course, Switzerland is OMEGA’s home, so we’ll have an extra feeling of pride when we welcome the world here.”

Ms Bartekova also commented on the event, saying: “We are privileged to share this moment together with our friends from OMEGA, a long-standing partner of the Olympic Games. OMEGA will not only provide the timekeeping for all sports at Lausanne 2020, but also the count-down clock we are unveiling today.

Thanks to OMEGA’s cutting-edge technology, the times and results will be transmitted to spectators and fans across the globe. So, let me thank everyone at OMEGA for their great support for Lausanne 2020.”

Mr. Baumann added his thoughts by saying: “Lausanne 2020, the biggest winter multi-sport sporting event after the Olympic Games, innovates and involves the whole country and neighbouring France, and promotes the Olympic values and the commitment to youth on a daily basis. We look forward to continuing this momentum for the next two years and are pleased to celebrate ‘Two Years To Go’ today alongside OMEGA, a partner who shares these same values with us and confirms its support to the Olympic movement in all its facets.”

Known as the “Olympic Capital”, Lausanne has been the home of the modern Olympic Movement for more than 100 years and houses both the IOC Headquarters and the Olympic Museum. Certainly, Lausanne 2020 will represent a truly memorable homecoming for the multi-sport event and will represent the first Olympic Games to be held in Switzerland since the Olympic Winter Games St. Moritz 1948 – an event that OMEGA also timed.

For OMEGA, the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020 will be a “local” occasion too, as the brand’s own watchmaking headquarters in Bienne are situated just over 100km from the host city. The event will add even more experience to OMEGA’s already incredible legacy of Olympic Games timekeeping.