Youth Olympics begin with a bang!
Wednesday 18 August 2010
The inaugural Youth Olympic Games opened with a bang in Singapore as the official ceremony featured an extravagant firework display on the world's largest floating stage.
The Games’ flame entered the stadium on water as it travelled in a floating dragon with flapping wings and breathing fire as part of the vibrant opening which included a mix of theatre, music, dance and official protocol.
The 12-day event will involve 3,500 athletes aged from 14 to 18, including 40 representatives from Team GB - a number of which are former Sainsbury’s UK School Games competitors.
They are: Victoria Ohuruogu, Andrew Elkins, David Bolarinwa, Freya Jones, Themba Luhana, Zak Seddon, Georgia Peel, Louisa James, Sophie McKinna, Annie Tagoe [all athletes], Amy Radford, Alex Tofalides [both fencers], Laura Mitchell [gymnastics], Ellie Faulkner [swimming] and Sarah Milne [badminton].
Andrew Martin, who attended the Youth Sport Trust’s 2008 National Talent Orientation Camp, will be going all out in his canoe for Team GB.
Following their progress will be the Youth Sport Trust’s Guin Batten who is volunteering at the Games.
Guin, who won silver for Great Britain at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the quadruple scull and now works for the Trust as Head of Research and Innovation in the TOP Foundation, is in Singapore in an official capacity, beginning with overseeing conditions on the race track for the young rowers, monitoring the wind and scanning the weather forecasts. Next week, Guin’s duties will take her into the Athlete Village.
She picked one particular highlight from her first week in Singapore which illustrated for her the “power of the Games” in a uniquely different way.
“It is the story of a 12-year-old boy who followed the flame as it journeyed hand-to-hand across Singapore,” she said. “At first no one noticed through the pouring rain, the little figure in flip flops, running just behind the flame taking pictures for his scrapbook. Gradually one by one the volunteers noticed him. In all he ran over 15km, and the following day he was invited to become torchbearer No. 6327. A great beginning to the Games,” she added.