The Straits Times Nov 20, 2007 Singapore moves closer to hosting Youth Olympics By Marc Lim Singapore has emerged as among the front runners to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games 2010. The Republic and Moscow top a shortlist of five cities - including Athens, Bangkok and Turin - that was released by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday. An IOC panel of experts who studied the bids of all candidate cities gave Moscow the highest marks of 7.5 to 8.4 - based on a scoring system of a minimum and maximum grade. Singapore was close behind, earning a score of 7.4 to 7.9, followed by Athens (6.1 to 7.2), Turin (5.5 to 6.3) and Bangkok (5.4 to 5.7). Nine cities had expressed interest in hosting the Youth Games, which will feature those aged between 14 and 18. But the proposals of Debrecen (in Hungary), Guatemala City, Kuala Lumpur and Poznana (in Poland) failed to impress the IOC panel. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Coimmunity Development, Youth and Sports, yesterday welcomed the news. He said: "The Youth Olympic Games will celebrate sports and promote the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. "We share these values, and believe that multiracial, multicultural and multi-religious Singapore is a working model of these values in action." The Republic scored highly in areas sucha s accommodation, transport system and strong government. Singapore's unique concept of staging the Games in both the city and the heartland was also well received. But the Republic lost out to Moscow over its yet-to-be-built Games Village. Moscow intends to house the athletes in an existing three-star hotel complex used for the 1980 Olympic Games and 1998 World Youth Games. Singapore's proposed Games village site is the National University of Singapore's University Town @ Warren (which I believe to be the old site of the Warren Golf Club at Folkestone Road named after the British Army Brigadier General but now returned to the government.) MCYS Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck said Singapore's bid committee will reassure the IOC that the complex will be ready in time for the Games. He added: "We are confident the Games Village would be ready to welcome the athletes. But we will also offer alternative accommodation." Among the possible alternatives are hostels at both NUS and Nanyang Technological University. Still, Singapore's chances of pipping the other four cities when the winning city is announced in February appear to be good. The IOC has already said one of the purposes of the Games is to allow countries which would not be able to stage the traditional Olympic Games a chance to host a major event. Athens and mOscow have hosted the Summer Games while Turin hosted last year's Winter Olympics. IOC Executive BOard member from Singapore Ng Ser Miang said he has received positive feedback about Singapore's Bid, but stressed there is more work to be done. He said: "The IOC report pointed out a few areas we can work on. We'll be using that to tighten and strengthen our bid further." An IOC evaluation commission has been formed to look at the five shorlisted cities. It will submit a report to the IOC executive board in January. The board will then recommend which cities will be subittted to the 114 IOC members for voting. A postal vote by all IOC members will then decide the winning city in February. (Great news for all sports loving fans in Singapore and I hope Singapore gets the chance to play the first host! )
