Two Years Out, Nanjing 2014 Puts the "Youth" in YOG

(ATR) Nanjing 2014 executive president Yang Weize tells Around the Rings the Youth Olympic Games are an especially fitting event for his ancient Chinese city to stage.

With a population of 8 million, nearly a third of which are youngsters, the provincial capital is fast becoming known for more than its centuries-old temples, gardens and the world’s longest surviving city wall.

"Nanjing is not only an ancient city but also a city for the future," says Weize, who looks 35 but insists he’s 50.

"Now we are a member of the Olympic Movement, so we will endeavor to promote the Olympic Values and to become one of the world’s famous sports cities."

Nanjing already played host to China’s 10th National Games in 2005 and will get a second warm-up of sorts with next year’s Asian Youth Games.

Though the National Games actually featured two more sports and almost three times as many athletes as the YOG, which are capped at 3,500 teens across the same 28 sports as the Summer Olympics, demand will be much wider, as will the range of eligible NOCs.

With pre-existing venues a plenty, only four new builds are needed for 2014, beach volleyball and BMX among them.

Still, says Weize, the most important part of preparations is still to come.

"How to combine the innovation and ideals and concepts of the young people into our work" is the challenge for Nanjing in these next few months.

"In the organizing committee, we are all adults," he tells ATR, clarifying that many staff and volunteers are 20 to 25 years young.

"But for the athletes, they are under the age of 18. They are adolescents. We should consider what they are asking for and what their innovation will be, what they are good at."

That’s among the biggest changes from the inaugural YOG two summers ago in Singapore, he says.

"We should focus more on the interaction of the young athletes and on their contribution in the time of the internet age."

Also new for 2014 are rugby sevens and golf, given their imminent return to the Olympics at Rio 2016.

According to Weize, golf courses are common around Nanjing, but a rugby stadium is among those few new venues needed for the Games.

The city actually fields a young women’s rugby team already, he says with pride, but that’s about the extent of participation so far.

"For these two sports, they are new to us," he admits, "but for the young people, they are not new."

Asked whether wushu will also share the YOG spotlight, he confirmed the martial art will be included to "communicate and promote Chinese culture" but did not elaborate whether this would be as part of the official Culture & Education Program or as part of the broader range of events traditionally staged by the host city during a Games period.

With just under two years to go, the IOC Coordination Commission led by Russia’s Alexander Popov is "quite satisfied" with preparations so far, according to Weize.

He says Nanjing 2014 has taken the IOC’s wish for a far smaller, more frugal affair than Beijing 2008 to heart and is "very strictly" controlling the cost of the Games.

The budget, he concedes, stands approximately 20 percent bigger than Singapore because of the two new sports and several hundred more athletes heading to the second Summer YOG.

The big spend is on a new Youth Olympic Village to be completed later this year, and most Games costs will be borne by big corporate sponsors anyway.

The likes of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, 361 Degrees and China Telecom are already on board, says Weize, with additional marketing efforts progressing "very smoothly" at roughly the two-year-to-go mark until Nanjing 2014.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

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