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Preparing future young athletes

By Jacques Rogge (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-09 15:56

When the first Olympic Games of the modern era opened in Athens in 1896 with just 241 competitors and few spectators, its future was not as assured as hindsight would now suggest.

Indeed, the Athens Games attracted athletes from just 14 nations, with the largest delegations coming from Greece, Germany, France and Great Britain. The 1896 Games were a very different offering from the global phenomenon we see today, which has become a regular fixture on our sports and social calendars.

It took another 28 years for the Winter Games to join its older brother as a regular event. We get to see the Games alternately every two years today, but that wasn't always the case. The Olympic Games was not always guaranteed as a global spectacle; it has evolved just like the sporting programs.

In just a few days time, we will see the first ever Youth Olympic Games, a worthy addition to the Olympic stable. Since the Olympic program has never been set in stone and has continued to change and reflect changing attitudes to sport and society, we will see some interesting innovations and events that have not been part of an Olympic program before.

There will be new formats like street basketball, relay races in the pool and triathlon with mixed gender teams. There will even be competitions among mixed teams from different nationalities. All these are designed to appeal to a younger audience and inspire young athletes. But irrespective of the changes and experiments, the most important aspect of the Youth Olympic Games is its focus on young athletes. So, why this deliberate concentration on youth?

As organizers of the largest sporting event in the world, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) understands that it has the responsibility of preparing young athletes for the future. Indeed, this was one of the pillars upon which IOC founder Pierre de Coubertin built the modern Olympic Games at the turn of the 20th century.

Sport itself is a great educational tool for the youth. It strengthens their bodies as well as their minds, teaches them discipline, and encourages them to set goals and achieve them. But it would be irresponsible for the sports world to adopt a laissez-faire approach toward its young athletes by simply hoping that the act of taking part in sporting events will give them the abilities required to face and overcome obstacles both on and off the field.

The Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Singapore from Aug 14 to 26, will be about staging high-level competition in 26 sports disciplines and providing guidance and encouragement to some 3,600 of the world's best athletes between the ages of 14 and 18.

In addition to two weeks of first-class competition, the athletes will take part in a wide range of cultural and educational activities aimed at equipping them with the skills to make reasoned, intelligent decisions in life. The program will last the duration of the Youth Olympic Games and cover a host of topics, including the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle, the dangers of doping and the value of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

We want to provide the athletes with the tools they need to chart out their future. If they choose to continue with sport as a career - some may even go on to become Olympic champions - they must be fully aware that it is not a lifetime occupation. Even the greatest athletes typically end their sporting careers in the 30s.

Communicating with teenaged athletes who are potentially more receptive than their elder peers is crucial. The key is to present the information in a manner that the athletes find both enjoyable and relevant to their lives. At the end of the day, success rests on how much the athletes are willing to accept and embrace the information they receive.

As such, we are reaching out in the most modern and interactive ways possible. The Youth Olympic Games enjoys a strong and growing presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. We have created contests that challenge the online community to move away from their computer screens and get active. And we have enlisted some of the world's top athletes, including Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva and Michael Phelps, to support the athletes by acting as role models and sharing their experiences and insights.

Above all, the Youth Olympic Games and the cultural and educational activities should be fun. We want to encourage youngsters not only to strive to be the best, but also to enjoy sport for sport's sake and to continue enjoying it long after their dreams of winning medals have faded.

The Youth Olympic Games will give the athletes a chance to compete, to learn and to share their experiences with other young people. It is our hope that the athletes will act as ambassadors and be active in their communities by sharing what they learn when they return home from Singapore.

If the Youth Olympic Games can help provide the world's youth, one at a time, with a path to a better, brighter and healthier future, we will have succeeded. And very soon the Youth Olympic Games will become as much an indispensable fixture on the Olympic calendar as its "grown-up" brothers.

The author is president of the International Olympic Committee.