2010 Summer Youth Olympics

The 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games (officially known as 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games) is the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, a major international sports and cultural festival to be celebrated in the tradition of the Summer Olympic Games from August 14 to August 26, 2010, during the XXIX Olympiad. The Games will be held in Singapore, in a decision announced on 21 February 2008 after mail voting by 105 IOC members¹

Bid process

Bid details

Host of the 117th IOC Session, Singapore made its first formal bid to host a multi-disciplinary sporting event of this magnitude. Positive factors in its bid included its high connectivity with the world, its youthfulness as an independent country, and its reputation for excellence and multi-racial harmony. The city-state rolled out a high-publicity campaign which included being amongst the first to launch its official website, bid logo (despite IOC rules against bid logos) and a bid tagline "Blazing the Trail" on 16 October 2007² and getting the local populace to support its bid, including an effort by students to collect 1 million signatures in support of the games.³ The Logo Competition for the Singapore Olympics has officialy begun, with over 1,500 enteries submitted.

Singapore originally planned to use the National University of Singapore’s University Town for a high tech Youth Olympic Village. However the rapid increase in construction costs in 2008 resulted in the shifting of the Youth Olympic Village to the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University in Jurong West.⁴ Jurong West Sports and Recreation Centre will also feature prominently in the games.

There were concerns that the plan contained two new venues - the Olympic Village and equestrian complex. With concerns over delivering in time for the games, a construction expert reported the $423 million Olympic Village plan at the University was feasible. (There is a backup plan as well.) Similarly, the expert believed the equestrian venue could be delivered on time.⁵

The budget is $75.5 million and has strong government support. The plan is also attractive because of its compactness in the Singapore city-state.⁵

Accommodations

Transportation and infrastructure

All Singapore 2010 competition and non-competition venues will be within 30 minutes of the Youth Olympic Village (YOV), the Main Media Centre (MMC) and the Olympic Family hotels (OFH).

An Event Transport Operations Centre (ETOC) will manage all transport-related matters specific to the YOG, providing real-time travel information. A shuttle service will link all YOG venues for all accredited persons, as well as receiving complimentary travel on public buses and subways. Olympic Lanes will be designated along key routes for faster access to all YOG venues.

Singapore Changi Airport is well connected to more than 130 airports worldwide and 80 international airlines operate scheduled services via Singapore The airport has presently three main terminals, and a budget terminal.

Preparation

Organization

A selection process to determine the members of the games' organising committee commenced soon after the bid result announcement. Plans were made to have the committee to visit the IOC to obtain greater details on organising the event.⁸ Members of the 23-member Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) was announced on 24 March 2008 as follows:

In addition, an Inter-Ministry Committee was established with Niam Chiang Meng, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports as its chairman¹¹. Comprising five sub-committees on Sports, Culture and Education, Community Outreach, Youth Engagement and Business and Marketing, its members would be announced at a later date.

Youth Olympic Village

Financing

Singapore won the bid with a budget of $75.5 million, which will be derived from corporate sponsorship and the remainder topped up by guaranteed government funding. The organisers hope to raise S$40 million to S$50 million in sponsorship¹³.

Marketing

The organising committee launched an international logo design competition on 29 July 2008 through 29 August 2008 via the official website¹⁴, requiring that the logo incorporate the three themes of the Singapore identity, the Olympic ideals, and a youthful spirit¹³.

Sports

A total of 26 sports will be featured, for a total of 31 disciplines. This includes two disciplines under the IOC classification of aquatics (diving and swimming), two disciplines for Cycling (BMX and Mountain Bike), three for Gymnastics (Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline) and two for Volleyball (Indoor and Beach).

Calendar

The following calendar was published in the official Singapore YOG Bid Candidature File. Each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent a medal-awarding final for a sport. The number in each box represents the number of finals that will be contested on that day.¹⁵

Venues

A total of 19 competition venues has been earmarked for the games, spread in five main clusters around the island with all venues within a 30-minute travel time from the Youth Olympic Village. 11 of these venues do not require permanent works, three require permanent works, one, the Singapore Turf Club Riding School is being built as a permanent facility for the Singapore Turf Club, and four would be completely temporary fixtures located in existing open spaces or waterways. All of these venues except the Singapore Turf Club Riding School and the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre are government-owned.

Seven venues has been earmarked for training purposes, in particular the existing sports facilities within the National University of Singapore (NUS) which is adjacent to the Youth Olympic Village, the later of which will occupy the NUS University Town¹⁶. Construction of the University Town commenced on 31 January 2008¹⁷, and was speeded up upon confirmation of Singapore as the YOG host¹⁸. Other main venues include the Marina Bay Floating Stadium, which will stage the opening and closing ceremonies, The Marina Bay Sands, site of the Main Media Centre, and The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore, which will be the Olympic Family hotel with 500 rooms already secured by the organisers.

References

^ ^a ^b "Singapore to host the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010", IOC (2008-02-21). Retrieved on 21 February 2008.
^ Patwant Singh (2007-10-16). "Singapore's Youth Olympic Games Committee launches logo, website", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 16 October 2007.
^ "Youth Olympic athletes to stay at NTU campus". AsiaOne. Retrieved on 2008-08-12.
^ Margaret Perry (2007-10-28). "Jurong West to host Youth Olympic events if S'pore wins bid", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 28 October 2007.
^ ^a ^b Youth Olympic Games Evaluation Report Has Focus on Short Timeframe
^ Hasnita Majid (2008-02-28). "Minister Yeo says S'pore-China relations more multi-faceted", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 28 February 2008.
^ Valerie Tan (2008-02-28). "London Olympics team expected to be in S'pore for Youth Olympic Games", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 28 February 2008.
^ Wong Mun Wai (2008-03-11). "Organising committee to visit IOC to learn finer details of YOG", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 11 March 2008.
^ "http://www.singapore2010.sg/media/annex_a_240308.doc Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) Board Members]". Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
^ YOG organisers hoping for US$38m sponsorship deals
^ Channelnewsasia.com - Special Reports
^ Youth.SG :: Singapore - Youth Olympic Village goes to NTU
^ ^a ^b Channelnewsasia.com
^ Singapore 2010 Logo Design Competition - Home
^ ^a ^b "Singapore Candidature File Volume 1". BOCOG. Retrieved on 2008-03-02.
^ Nus Utown
^ Channelnewsasia.com - Special Reports
^ Channelnewsasia.com
^ Wong Siew Ying (2008-08-02). "Youth Olympic Village to be located at NTU, not NUS", Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved on 2 August 2008.

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