Youth Olympic Games (YOG)

The Youth Olympic games. Otherwise known as the YOG. It is the first YOG and it is held in my home country, Singapore. It runs from 14 Aug - 26 Aug. It bring the action right to the people in the heartlands. If you don't know what 'heartlands' means, it means like, the place where most residents stay(i.e. Not downtown or in the main city). 

Now, if you don't know, this is the first ever Youth Olympic Games. The thing is, Singapore will probably NEVER EVER IN 800 YEARS host the YOG again. Why? Take the FIFA World Cup for example. Russia could host it, China could host it. Did they host it? No. Mexico have hosted it. England have, Korea/Japan have. Just don't host it in USA. Americans don't appreciate the beauty of the sport. 

Now to how we got to host the YOG. Singapore made a bid. The final decision was made in 2008. The answer is obvious who won. Like, duh. If not, SG wouldn't be having the YOG right now. The vote was between Singapore and Russia. SG won, obviously. Hundreds(possibly thousands but I doubt it) of Singaporeans cheered at the moment that it was announced that Singapore would be hosting the YOG. With that, thousands of SGans were happy beyond their wildest dreams. Unless they have had better dreams, of course.

Hosting the Youth Olympic Games was something that would have been unimaginable only 40 years ago. Why? Firstly because the YOG didn't exist around that time and people probably weren't thinking of creating it anytime soon. And secondly, Singapore wasn't a 1st-World country like how it is today. SG went to 3rd-World to 1st-World in a time span of about 25 years. That itself is a remarkable achievement.

Now to the YOG. Now, the Asian Youth Games(AYG) was a flop. I didn't even watch a single second of it. Not even of the opening or closing ceremonies. But the YOG, I have watched a few hours of it. At first, people thought that YOG would also suck because the AYG was a flop and because there's not a lot of known athletes. Just youths. 

But they were wrong. The YOG so far has been exciting and has had many great moments in all 26 sports. I'm sure I can name all of them:

1. Track & Field
2. Fencing
3. Wrestling
4. Weightlifting
5. Badminton
6. Taekwondo
7. Archery
8. Swimming
9. Tennis
10. Javelin
11. FOOTBALL!!!(SG 3-2 Montenegro)
12. Sailing
13. Diving
14. Boxing
15. Basketball
16. Gymnastics
17. Judo
18. Modern Penathalon(No idea what this is, got it from official website)
19. Rowing(Official Website)
20. Volleyball(Official Website)
21. Handball(Official Website)
22. Equestrian(Horse-riding, Official Website)
23. Canoe/Kayak(Official Website)
24. Cycling
25. Hockey
26. Shooting(Official Website)

The ones that have "(Official Website) next to them are the ones that I got from the official website. It was a little help. Yeah, I can't remember ALL 26 sports but I remember most of the sports. I'm pro. ProGoal. Hahahaha. So far, the YOG has been good.


Singapore's achievements. While we feel very malu(Malay for embarassed), we are quite happy for our athletes. We're malu because we are hosting and we haven't won many medals. But that's alright. Just see when my friend does Track & Field in 4 years time. He beat the Japanese Sports School's 2.4km run record. Yeah. Congrats to Rainer Ng for Silver medal and Nurul .... for Taekwondo Bronze medal. 


Keep cheering for Team Singapore!
justbloggering