The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Singapore government reaffirmed their commitment to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games 2010 in Singapore Saturday by signing the 2010 Youth Games contract in a special ceremony.
Also Saturday the IOC delegation was at the Nanyang Technological University where a mural for the Singapore Olympic Academy was unveiled, and they were given a tour of the university’s hostels which will be used at the back-up Games Village if the original one at the National University of Singapore is not ready for the 2010 Games.
The delegation then travelled to the Singapore Sports School, host of four of the event’s 26 sports.
International Olympic Committee President Jacque Rogge said he was pleased with the scale of facilities for the Games. He felt that Singapore sports facilities were designed intelligently to meet the country’s needs.
He said, “in many countries you see facilities that are too big for the actual and real need of the country. They are what we call ‘white elephants’. Here you don’t find white elephants, at least not in sports venues. I think this has been a very clever investment by Singapore”.
Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister said, “he (Rogge) was impressed with the fact that he saw Singaporeans using the facilities which will ultimately be used by the people at the Olympics. So it’s on time and on scale. The other point which we discussed was the legacy impact of having an Olympic event in the country.
“The challenge for us is to make sure that every Singaporean feels that they have a sense of ownership for this Games and that Singapore, as a whole, will also be changed by it, in the sense that we will have a chance to play host to the world.
“We would be able to show our best to the world, and we would be able to elevate our standards of graciousness, of the way we treat each other and of the way we treat foreigners and guests in our midst”.
