From Sunday 21 June to Thursday 25 June 2026, the capital city hosted the Summer Children and Youth Olympics for the first time in its history. The largest national competition for young athletes has been held annually since 2003 and is intended for athletes aged 12 to 16. More than 3,500 of them came to Prague, and for all participants it was an opportunity to compete in an atmosphere like the real Olympic Games – including the lighting of the Olympic flame and the ceremonial oath during the opening ceremony on Sunday, 21 June at the stadium in Eden.
The heart of the Olympics was the Olympic House at the Prague Exhibition Grounds, which was open to the public free of charge. As part of the accompanying program, Prague universities presented themselves, including the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. The university has major sports stars among its current students and alumni, and some of them were the faces of these Olympics. For them, the university prepared an autograph session on Thursday, 25 June, giving young athletes the chance to meet top alpine skier Jan Zabystřan and elite deaf beach volleyball player Jan Žídek in person and receive their autographs as a keepsake. Other famous CZU alumni were also among the supporters of the Olympics, including sprint canoeist Josef Dostál and biathlon legend Markéta Davidová.
In the academic village at the Exhibition Grounds, CZU research teams presented their projects. For example, the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences introduced the Antelope Conservation Association, which has more than 20 years of experience protecting antelopes in the West African savannah. Scientists from the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources created an improvised sensory laboratory.
Read more on our ŽIVÁ UNIVERZITA website.
