Nine Cities Submit Youth Olympic Games Questionnaires

(ATR) Nine cities are still in the running to host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010, after Algiers, Algeriadrops out at the first major IOC deadline.

The cities of Athens, Greece; Bangkok, Thailand; Debrecen, Hungary; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Moscow, Russia; Poznan, Poland; Singapore; and Turin, Italy have sent completed questionnaires to Lausanne. Algeria had expressed interest in an Algiers bid, but did not return a questionnaire to the IOC.

Bidding cities face a few rules that Olympic bid cities do not. No new venues should be built for the YOGs, and all sports must be held within the city, not satellite locations. However, the sport roster is flexible – dropping one or two sports will not hurt a city's bid, says IOC president Jacques Rogge. Landlocked cities need not worry about a sailing venue, for example.

And the largest venue a city will need for the scaled-down version of the Olympics need only seat 10,000, Rogge says.

The next major YOG bidding milestone comes Nov. 19, when the IOC announces a shortlist of candidates. In December, IOC members may visit the candidate cities, and a postal vote by IOC members will decide the host in February.

Presented in alphabetical order are the nine bidders for the Youth Olympic Games.

Athens, Greece

Athens held the worldwide Olympic spotlight a little more than three years ago during the Summer Games. The city has legacy venues in place with which the Hellenic Olympic Committee hopes to bring back the world.

A Olympic-standard aquatic and tennis center, as well as an indoor hall are part of the Athens Olympic Sport Complex. The legacy velodrome is a facility that few other bid cities can offer. The city has the venues to host every sport on the Olympic roster.

Bangkok, Thailand

The capital of Thailand first hosted the Asian Games in 1966, and has attracted the massive event three times since then. The venues constructed for the 1998 edition are part of the Bangkok bid plan.

The 1998 Asian Games were Bangkok's biggest sport undertaking, says the VP and secretary general of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand, Maj. Gen. Charouck Arirachakaran.

For the games, Bangkok made ready the 60,000-seat Rajamangala National Stadium and the Thammasat University Rangsit Campus Sports Complex. The university site includes a 20,000-seat stadium, housing for 10,000, an aquatic center and seven indoor courts with seating for 2,000 each.

The venues also were used for the 2007 Summer Universiade.

In 2007, Thailand hosted the Weightlifting World Championships in Chiang Mai; the city of Nakhon Ratchasima will host the Southeast Asian Games and the World Snooker Championships before the end of the year.

Debrecen, Hungary

The university town of Debrecen, Hungary, bid features 95 percent of venues within walking distance of the Athletes' Village.

The city's bid staff are housed on the 19-ha campus of the Debrecen Sportcentrum – a city-owned company that manages an onsite IAAF elite training center, sport medicine clinic, and range of courts, gyms and fields open to the public.

Sportcentrum managing director Mihaly Orendi is also the bid’s executive director of the bid.

In 2002, the Sportcentrum hosted the International Gymnastics Federation World Championship. It has since followed up with a youth IAAF World Championship, the first IAAF road running world championships, and European championships in U-23 athletics, duathlon, handball, sports aerobics and sitting volleyball.

IOC member from Hungary Pal Schmitt is president of the bid committee.

"This would be a perfect fit and logical next step for the authorities who have done so much to bring the youth closer to sport," he says.

Guatemala City, Guatemala

Guatemala City hosted its first major Olympic event in July with the 119th IOC session. Latin America’s only YOG applicant is trying to make one of the first entries on its sports resume.

The city hosted the 2007 North American Regional Powerlifting Championships, the 2006 Modern Pentathlon World Championships and the 2000 FIFA Futsal World Championships.

Mateo Flores Stadium, the city's biggest, is named for the 1955 Pan Am Games marathon champion.

The smaller Estadio La Pedrera is built around the country's first tartan track and seats about 16,000. The city's third major venue is the Domo Polideportivo de la CDAG, which is both a multi-sport facility and a non-sport venue. It has a seating capacity of 7,500.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The host city of the 1998 Commonwealth Games and the 2001 Southeast Asian Games returns to try for another international multi-sport event.

The National Sports Complex in Kuala Lumpur houses the massive National Stadium with seating for 100,000. The more modest requirements of the Youth Olympic Games may mean using the 13,000-seat Putra Stadium. Also in the complex are an aquatic center and several indoor and outdoor facilities.

The bid is in the hands of Dato' Zolkples Embong, director of the National Sports Council Malaysia.

The International Badminton Federation has its headquarters in the city – and the federation's 2007 world championships were held there in August. It is also a stop on the F1 Racing circuit.

Moscow, Russia

Moscow's 2010 bid comes with Olympic provenance and access to successful bid city talent.

The major venues in the Moscow proposal were also part of the 1980 Games: Luzhniki Stadium, Krylatskoe, CSKA-Khodynka, and Olympiysky venues are proposed for YOG service. The Izmaylovo complex, purpose-built as the 1980 athletes' village, has dining, entertainment space and accommodation for 8,000 people.

The Moscow bid is also drawing on Sochi talent. Sochi 2014 director of international relations Alexey Sorokin is in charge of Moscow 2010 strategic development. The bid already has support from city hall.

"We've successfully hosted the Games of the CIS and Baltic Countries, the Moscow-Utah Games and hundreds of European and world championships," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told Russian media in September when Jacques Rogge visited Sochi.

"All these competitions were marked by top standards of organization," Luzhkov continued. "The IOC didn't make a single complaint later."

Poznan, Poland

An industrial city in the east of Poland, one of Poznan City Hall's strategic goals is development of professional and amateur sport. The city landed a rowing world cup stop in 2006, and the U-19 European football championships for the same year.

The city's Lake Malta will host the World Rowing Championships in 2009. The city is also gearing up to host UEFA Euro 2012 matches. Its Miejski Stadium, home to the Lech Poznan football club, seats 24,000 with an upgrade underway to double capacity.

Poznan mounted unsuccessful bids for the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Universiades, and may try again for 2013. The 2011 bid had support all the way up to Polish president Lech Kaczynski and the country's legendary former president Lech Walesa.

Singapore

The city-state of Singapore has little experience with major sports events, but is busy building a new competency.

Most of the people voting on the 2010 host know Singapore from the 2005 IOC session, when London was chosen to host the 2012 Games. In 2005, the government launched a tender to construct a major multi-sport facility that they hope will make Singapore a global sport destination by completion in 2011. Singapore also has won a spot on the 2008 F1 circuit to host the tour's first nighttime race.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong traveled to Lausanne in October to seek advice from Jacques Rogge.

"It’s a major endeavor. We’ve had other major exercises before like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings last year, but this is the Youth Olympics. It’s the first one and we’ll give it our best shot," said Lee.

Advising the bid are Ng Ser Miang, IOC member from Singapore,and Teo Ser Luck, the parliamentary secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sport.

Turin, Italy

The city at the base of the Italian Alps is well-known for its winter facilities that hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2007 winter Universiade.

Yet the city has plenty of summer sport facilities – and according to reports in Italian media – may use an ex-Fiat factory for an Olympic Village. A retired Fiat Avio factory is now a multi-use convention center with offices and lodging. It served as the main press center during the 2006 Games.

Turin also has the management of the Torino Olympic Park pushing for the Games. The TOP manages the 2006 Games facilities and is also charged with using those legacies to attract events to the city.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi signed a letter to Jacques Rogge with his government's endorsement for the bid on Oct. 22. Also supporting the bid are IOC members from Italy Franco Carraro, Mario Pescante, Ottavio Cinquanta and Manuela di Centa.

Photos by Getty Images

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