Over the past eight months, Chloe has been competing on the European judo circuit and her aim was to meet the qualification criteria for the selection process for the European Youth Olympics (EYO) being held in Slovenia in July. The European Youth Olympics are held every two years, and are for athletes under the age of 18 years old, so this would have been the only chance she would have to obtain a place. Chloe was notified at the beginning of May by Team GB that she had been nominated by the British Judo Federation as a potential athlete for this event and confirmation that she was selected came along in the middle of May.
To qualify, you had to be ranked within the top 3 for your age and weight group within Great Britain and to have medalled at a European Cadet Cup event. Chloe is ranked number one in Great Britain and has won two silver medals and two bronze medals on the European Circuit.
There will be 48 European Countries competing, as Russia and Belarus are disallowed to compete this year.
Please see below BJA Announcement:
TEAM GB ANNOUNCE ATHLETES SELECTED FOR MARIBOR 2023 EUROPEAN YOUTH OLYMPIC FESTIVAL
Team GB has today announced 9 GB judoka as part of a 39-strong team to compete at the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Maribor, Slovenia this summer.
Maribor will welcome over 3,000 athletes from 48 countries for the 17th edition of the summer EYOF which runs from 23-29 July.
Eleven Olympic sports make up the programme: artistic gymnastics, athletics, handball, judo, road cycling, swimming, tennis and volleyball, with mountain bike, skateboarding and 3×3 basketball featuring for the first time at an EYOF. Team GB will be represented in five sports: artistic gymnastics, judo, mountain bike, road cycling and swimming.
EYOFs play a vital role in providing aspiring young Olympians with a fantastic multi-sport experience and the 39 athletes selected to compete in Maribor will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Team GB EYOF alumni including Dina Asher-Smith (Trabzon 2011), Nile Wilson (Utrecht 2013), Duncan Scott (Utrecht 2013) and Tom Pidcock (Tbilisi 2015) who went from EYOF podium to medal success at the Olympic Games.
Chloe Link, said: “It feels amazing to be selected, I’ve been wanting this for ages. As soon as I heard that the European Youth Olympics were an option, my goal was immediately set on it. I want to put in a good performance, to win all of my fights and really soak up the experience, as it will give me a good feel for the senior Olympics for when I’m older.”
Chloe Link