Just over two years ago the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to Singapore. After ecstatic celebrations on the Padang, there has been a steady drumbeat of promotion that is now in full swing. All those preparations climax at the actual Games from 14 through 26 August 2010.

In many cities around the world, the full Olympics have a positive lasting legacy and resulted in new venues that have been used for many years. The Olympic Stadium from 1964 still stands in the middle of Tokyo, for example, and the Olympic Stadium in Seoul is used for concerts and events. Tourists still head to the Birds Nest in Beijing.

Admittedly, the legacy is nowhere near as positive as in some others sites, and Greece still has empty sporting venues that now cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to maintain.

Big expectations

Yet the Olympics have brought change and vibrancy to many cities.

The YOG have always been planned to be smaller than the full Olympics, yet legacy is still important. In the original application form, the IOC said an important consideration for candidate cities is to “contribute to the harmonious integration of the Summer Youth Olympic Games into the long term development of the host city, region and country.” The legacy of the Games could well include new facilities, a positive budget impact and, perhaps most importantly, the development of a stronger sporting culture.

New facilities can hardly be a legacy here, though, as the Singapore YOG Organizing Committee (SYOGOC) said from the beginning that “most of the competition venues are existing facilities.” The Youth Olympic Village uses existing buildings at Nanyang Technological University, for example, and those facilities will revert to their regular use after the Games.

For TONS of more photos, visit our "Youth Olympic Village: An inside look" photo gallery on Facebook.

While the cost of the YOG has remained low compared to the billions spent on the full Olympics, the financial results may not be quite as positive a legacy as originally expected. The original budget was US$75.4 million for hosting the games and US$4.6 million in capital expenditures, which the bid said “have been conservatively calculated.”

However, Today newspaper recently reported that the budget has tripled, from S$122 million to S$387 million. The original budget of about S$3.3 million for information systems, for example, has grown to technology costs now estimated at S$97 million. Still, the budget remains relatively low and Singapore won’t be saddled with massive debt after the Games.

With few new facilities and a relatively low budget, then, the greatest opportunity may lie in growing the athletic spirit and enthusiasm the Games bring to Singapore.

Indeed, in its original application Singapore said the Games’ legacy will include “the biennial Asian Youth Games” for talented young athletes and a Sports Museum and Library at “Singapore’s future Sports Hub [that] is scheduled for completion in 2011. The greatest legacy, it said, “may well lie in igniting the passion of young people.”

Igniting the sporting passion

The plans for igniting passion during the Games are well underway.

Singapore plans to have over a hundred athletes participating in the Games, and Singapore's YOG chef de mission James Wong said in early August that “we stand a chance in all 26 sports. The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) is setting up CheerHubs around the island, and SSC CEO Oon Jin Teik said ”we want to make YOG action available to every Singaporean” to get people “excited and ready to cheer as one nation." Banners and countdown clocks dot the island, special traffic lanes have been set up and there are media stories galore about the preparations.

Looking ahead, inspiring future athletes would be a winning move for Singapore

Even as excitement focuses on the Games, though, less has been said about what will actually happen next.

Some plans are indeed already in place. When Singapore selected 120 official Sports Presenters in 2009, SYOGOC CEO Goh Kee Nguan said “they will be an important legacy for YOG after the Games when they continue to make sports more exciting and entertaining in future sporting events.” Singapore Technologies created a virtual world which IDA told ZDNet can be extended to “education, entertainment and e-government after the Youth Olympics.”

Yet activities beyond these to continue to ignite passion about sports may not have been fully communicated so far. And in a recent profile of youth working at the games, for example, JobsDB found they plan to go back to their usual routines.

For now, it’s time to enjoy the games enthusiastically. Come the 27 August -- or even before -- it’s time to work more on making the legacy to come to life.

Richard Hartung | 11 August 2010