GREEN AND GOLD: Victoria Unicomb will don the green and gold of Australia at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney. Picture by STUART SCOT

The London Games may be done and dusted for 2012 but Victoria Unicomb has her own Olympic experience on the horizon.

The 16-year-old from Telarah will don the famous green and gold colours while representing her ­country at an international multi-sports event – the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF).

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Unicomb said.

“I didn’t even know there was an Olympics like this but it will be a great experience.

“All the different sports on offer and the chance to meet everyone in the village, I haven’t been to anything like it before.”

The AYOF, held in the six months following each summer Olympics, will take place in Sydney early next year and Unicomb has been picked to play basketball for the Australian women’s under-18 squad.

The opportunity arose after Hungary pulled out of competition and Australia added a second team to the draw.

The 2012 Maitland Junior Sportsperson of the Year nominee received news of the selection late last week and she was both shocked and pleased with the call-up.

“I was away at a camp for [NSW] country when mum rang me,” she said.

“But I had to wait until I got home to find out what it was – I wasn’t expecting to hear that.”

Most surprisingly for Unicomb, however, will be the format of the matches she will be participating in across the three-day tournament at Darling Harbour.

The AYOF will adopt the 3x3 style, which is being touted as a possible medal event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, rather than the conventional five-a-side game.

This half-court version of basketball was introduced to a global audience at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics and with 250 million players internationally a world tour was introduced this year with Puerto Rican team San Juan claiming the $30,000 prize in Miami.

Unicomb hasn’t played 3x3 before but the year 10 student at All Saints College, St Peter’s Campus, Maitland, said she was looking ­forward to the experience.

“It’s exciting because it’s something different and not just the same old basketball,” she said.

“It’s also a bit scary as well because I don’t really know the rules.”

This will be Unicomb’s second crack at national level and follows training with the Australian under 17s squad earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Maitland Mustangs junior, who was ­nominated for the national side by her state coach, will attempt to ­maintain her fitness in the lead up to the sixth AYOF.

The opening ceremony of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) event will be held on

January 16.

Competition follows the next three days and 1700 athletes from 30 countries will participate in 17 sports, including rugby and golf.

The 2013 AYOF will be officially launched at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre today with a demonstration of 3x3 basketball led by four-time Olympic medallist Lauren Jackson.

AOC president John Coates and Olympic medallists Murray Stewart, Jessica Fox and Matthew Mitcham will also attend.