Thursday, September 27, 2007

India to bid for Youth Olympic Games in 2014

India will bid to host the first ever Youth Olympic Games, to be introduced in 2014 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said in Pune on July 22.

The IOC's decision to launch the Youth Olympic Games in 2010 has been received with optimism by Indians.

India, who dropped the idea of bidding for 2016 Olympic games after their 2014 Asian Games bid failed in Kuwait, feel hosting the second edition of Youth Games in 2014 would be "a stepping stone" in their efforts to grab the rights for the 2020 Games.

IOC president Jacques Rogge proposed at a recent meeting in Guatemala City that Youth Olympic Games were required to get the increasing number of "couch potatoes" on to the track or in the swimming pool.

The IOC plans to use the Youth Olympics as an opportunity to give hosting rights to cities that missed out on the Olympics themselves. The games would be staged for participants aged between 12 to 18 years and selection would be done 18 months before the event is held.

Mr. Kalmadi said the IOC has been giving a lot of stress on the youth of the world and hence they have decided to introduce the Youth Olympic Games in addition to the Summer and Winter Olympics, to not only promote the Olympic sports but also have their total involvement in sports activities.

Expressing great optimism, Mr. Kalmadi, who heades the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games to be held at the Shiv Chhatarapati Sports City Mahalunge-Balewadi near here from October 12 to 18 next year, said India will certainly come out successful in its bidding after having been entrusted with responsibilities of hosting the 2008 CYG in Pune and later the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

He said he hopes that the IOA will be channelising all its efforts in bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games in the country. The bidding for the games will start in 2011 and the final decision would be taken in 2013, Mr. Kalmadi informed.

He said all the nine venues for the ensuing 2008 CYG will be completed and handed over to the Games Organising Committee on May 31 next year. ''I have no doubt that the work has been going on in a fierce pace despite the onslaught of the monsoon. It would be completed much before the due date,'' Mr. Kalmadi elaborated.

“This will give us the much needed time to test all the venues by hosting competitions in each of the nine disciplines namely -- athletics, swimming, tennis, badminton, shooting, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling and table tennis,” he said.

With the exception of the new stadias being built for conducting badminton, table tennis, wrestling and weightlifting, work on other venues have been completed by over 30 per cent, Mr. Kalmadi said.

The Pune 2008 CYG will serve as the trails for the prestigious 2010 Commonwealth Games and has surpassed the earlier two editions held in Edinbrough in Scotland in 2000 and the scond held at Bendigo in Australia in 2004. It has attracted all the 71 commonwealth countries, featuring about 2000 sportspersons and officials, he said.

2 Comments:

At October 17, 2009 at 4:03 PM , Blogger swaroop said...

India should not be granted an
olympic platform of any kind. Following the recent controversies of Suresh Kalmadi and statements like these are not Imperial games made totally out of context are inappropriate. Commonwealth games 2010 are heading for a failure. India is unfit to host the Olympic games and officials like Mr. Kalmadi have proven that they cannot work cohesively as a team.

 
At August 7, 2011 at 10:32 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the information....

Hey by the way checkout the total information about the upcoming events here
All Africa Games 2011 ,
Commonwealth Youth Games 2011 and
Pacific Games 2011

 

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