The IOC offers the following Video News Release to all news agencies, broadcasters and online news platforms free of charge. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach welcomed a group of students who survived Japan’s 2011 catastrophic earthquake and tsunami as guests of honour to the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Lausanne 2020. They were welcomed at Olympic House in Lausanne by the IOC President before taking their places at the opening ceremony on Thursday evening (January 9th 2020). They are the second group of students to visit the Olympic capital from Fukushima. It follows President Bach’s visit to the Japanese region in November 2018, accompanied by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. More than 15,000 people were killed in the tsunami, a 15 metre high tidal wave rampaging ashore, in March 2011. More than 500,000 people were displaced from their homes. The disaster was triggered by a major earthquake off northern Japan’s Pacific coast.
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