The Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2010

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Thursday, 26th August 2010

As the first Youth Olympic Games comes to an end this evening after 12 days of intensive competition, I couldn't help feeling a sense of loss. Skipping lunch during office hours to catch the likes of our home grown paddlers, Isabelle Li and Clarence Chew in action would become a thing of the past. There would be no more games to watch for now even though the Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Guangzhou Asian Games are just a couple of months away which should wrap up the year nicely.

While I had never been physically present at the games venue to support our local athletes, I had been following closely with the reports from the press and the internet. Critics had been harsh from some fellow Singaporeans. Some were sceptical of Singapore's ability to host such a major sporting event even though they had discounted the fact that we had successfully hosted 3 editions of the South East Asian Games in 1973, 1983 and 1993. While the response for the games from the general public might be lukewarm in the beginning, the YOG certainly sparked some interests among Singaporeans after seeing our footballers, paddlers and swimmers coming home with medals from their respective fields. Kudos to our homegrown athletes. Certainly, they were a class of their own as they went on to win 7 medals for the republic.

As a young Singaporean, I'm certainly proud of our nation for making history, for having hosted our first games successfully. This would certainly set a benchmark for other host cities to follow suit in time to come. Well done Singapore and thank you for the great memories 😊

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