The IOC chose Monday the two finalist cities from a list which also included Athens, Greece; Bangkok, Thailand; and Turin, Italy.
The winner will be announced on February 21 by IOC President Jacques Rogge.
The IOC said on its website: "the Youth Olympic Games aim to bring together talented athletes - age group 14 to 18 - from around the world to participate in high-level competitions but also to run, alongside the sports element of the event, educational programmes on the Olympic values, the benefits of sport for a healthy lifestyle, the social values sport can deliver and on the dangers of doping and of training to excess and/or of inactivity."
On July 5, 2007 at a ceremony in Guatemala the IOC declared that the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi had won the host city bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
