Nanjing will host the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games for young athletes aged 14-18 on August 16-28. Alexander Popov, the head of the Coordinating Committee of the Games in Nanjing, a member of the IOC, said “the Youth Olympic Games are not the Olympic Games. The Youth Olympic Games have their own purpose, goals and objectives. They have completely different viewers. Olympic and Youth Olympic Games should not be put on the same scale. That is why the Youth Olympic Games have an absolutely unique status. They unite young people all around the world who will carry the values of their country, share with coevals, with young people. That is the goal of the work of the International Olympic Committee. There is one simple reason. You know well that young people face very serious problems. And the International Olympic Committee is well aware of it. As a means of promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the Youth Olympic Games were organized, they are very successful, by the way, and the results athletes show are very positive.”
The president of the Russian Olympic Committee says that “there were very serious qualification competitions for the Olympic Games. Many of our athletes received licenses. Everything is as serious here as at the big Olympic Games. It was a complicated task to select 70 people, because the limit for every country is 70 people for individual sports at the Olympic Games. The Executive Committee of the Russian Olympic Committee gathered specially to give approval to our team. It will consist of 84 athletes. 70 in individual types, our female handball team will take part. Russia will perform in 21 out of 32 types of sports of the Olympic Program. We have a very strong team. Our participants include 12 winners of world championships and universal Olympic qualitative tours, 20 champions of Europe and European qualitative tours, 6 prize-winners of world championships, 21 prize-winners of European championships, winners of the top world ratings, world record-breakers.”
Zhukov reminded that our team succeeded in Singapore, positioned second after the Chinese team. “I think our team has good chances of succeeding in Nanjing. We put our biggest hopes on such sports as track-and-field athletics, swimming, wrestling, fencing, gymnastics. We have many athletes indeed. In selecting we encountered a problem, because there were potential medal-winners in different kinds of sports. For example, we wanted to assign additional boys and girls successful at qualitative competitions for track-and-field athletics, but at the same time we had challengers for the shooting team, modern pentathlon, different kinds of sports. We tried to find balance to have more kinds of sports presented from our country at the Olympic Games. That is why the Youth Olympics is not just a sports event, it is also a big project related to culture, education, so this part of the Olympic Games may be no less important than ordinary sports events for young athletes."
Nanjing will host the Second Summer Youth Olympic Games for young athletes aged 14-18 on August 16-28. Alexander Popov, the head of the Coordinating Committee of the Games in Nanjing, a member of the IOC, said “the Youth Olympic Games are not the Olympic Games. The Youth Olympic Games have their own purpose, goals and objectives. They have completely different viewers. Olympic and Youth Olympic Games should not be put on the same scale. That is why the Youth Olympic Games have an absolutely unique status. They unite young people all around the world who will carry the values of their country, share with coevals, with young people. That is the goal of the work of the International Olympic Committee. There is one simple reason. You know well that young people face very serious problems. And the International Olympic Committee is well aware of it. As a means of promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the Youth Olympic Games were organized, they are very successful, by the way, and the results athletes show are very positive.”The president of the Russian Olympic Committee says that “there were very serious qualification competitions for the Olympic Games. Many of our athletes received licenses. Everything is as serious here as at the big Olympic Games. It was a complicated task to select 70 people, because the limit for every country is 70 people for individual sports at the Olympic Games. The Executive Committee of the Russian Olympic Committee gathered specially to give approval to our team. It will consist of 84 athletes. 70 in individual types, our female handball team will take part. Russia will perform in 21 out of 32 types of sports of the Olympic Program. We have a very strong team. Our participants include 12 winners of world championships and universal Olympic qualitative tours, 20 champions of Europe and European qualitative tours, 6 prize-winners of world championships, 21 prize-winners of European championships, winners of the top world ratings, world record-breakers.”Zhukov reminded that our team succeeded in Singapore, positioned second after the Chinese team. “I think our team has good chances of succeeding in Nanjing. We put our biggest hopes on such sports as track-and-field athletics, swimming, wrestling, fencing, gymnastics. We have many athletes indeed. In selecting we encountered a problem, because there were potential medal-winners in different kinds of sports. For example, we wanted to assign additional boys and girls successful at qualitative competitions for track-and-field athletics, but at the same time we had challengers for the shooting team, modern pentathlon, different kinds of sports. We tried to find balance to have more kinds of sports presented from our country at the Olympic Games. That is why the Youth Olympics is not just a sports event, it is also a big project related to culture, education, so this part of the Olympic Games may be no less important than ordinary sports events for young athlet
