Young makes Youth Olympic Games team

WANAKA’S Phoebe Young will join multiworld agegroup champions Jessie Smith and Cailen Calkin in a fivestrong New Zealand cycling team to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.

The athletes will compete in the 13day games in Buenos Aires from October 618 in a team comprising BMX, mountain bike and road riders.

Smith was the 16 years BMX world champion in 2017 and ninth in her first year as a junior elite in 2018.

Calkin, a threetime Challenge world champion, was a quarterfinalist in the junior elite (under19) category this year.

At the Youth Olympic Games the pair will compete in the BMX racing against other riders of the same sex, with their results to be combined as medals are awarded to the team with the most points.

The pair are joined by three mountainbike riders, Samara Maxwell (Taupo), Max Taylor (Palmerston North) and Young.

Maxwell is the national under19 mountainbike champion, while Young is the Oceania under19 winner and also New Zealand under19 road time trial champion.

Taylor, the 2017 under17 mountainbike champion, has also had success as a road rider.

The 2018 Youth Olympic Games will be the third edition of the summer youth games.

The games are a preelite development opportunity for the world’s most promising young athletes, allowing them to experience a multisport games environment while exposing them to learning and cultural opportunities and helping them on the performance pathway.