I salute YOG!

I salute YOG! very proud that Singapore hosted the inaugural YOG, that like Greece was the birthplace of Olympics, Singapore leaders have the great vision to enshrine Singapore as the origin of the Youth Olympics Games for generations to come...

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Straits Times Aug 29, 2010
YOG deserve your salute
By Deepika Shetty

A friend who saw the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) on television said she was teary-eyed by the end of it. Her biggest regret was not having tried hard enough to get the tickets.

On opening night, some 5,500 performers came together on one stage. Through their energetic performance, capped with a stunning firework display, they tracked Singapore's progress from a small island nation to what it is today.

Like me, my friend hails from India and I could see why she felt emotional.

With about a month to go before the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the debate on Indian television news channels, websites and newspapers centres on shoddily built stadiums, corruption, claims that almost 4,000 rupees (S$116) were spent on a single toilet roll, and the deeper problem of inflated pricing.

Here in Singapore, things were pretty much seamless from start to finish.

That is why I just do not understand the cynicism and negativity surrounding the recently concluded YOG. There are some rather vicious and unwarranted online attacks on the Games and the criticism does not end there.

The previous Saturday, I shared a table with alumni from some of Singapore's top schools and here, too, the Games provided just the trigger for a debate. Arguments against the YOG were about being held up in traffic to allow the torch to pass through, the expense of the Games and, more disturbingly, whether the Games were needed at all.

I am convinced that people who have been lashing out against the Games have not actually spent time watching them.

Sure, there is the question of the budget, which I am confident will be explained in greater detail. Then there is the ticketing. It could have been better. I know that because my two children and I queued on three successive days trying to get tickets for the diving events. We were unsuccessful.

But we did make up for it by watching Cuba take on Argen-tina in a volleyball match. It was all thanks to the volunteers who assured us the match would be well worth it. They battled the elements and made us feel at home even in a queue. They made restless children happy by handing out YOG badges.

A middle-aged volunteer shook hands with all of us, thanking us for making time for the YOG and apologising for the queues and the wait. He did not need to do that. He told my seven-year-old son how he had not watched a single game but he was happy to have been a part of this historic event. It was a simple and telling story about the need to relish every moment.

We would not have made it to the athletics finals at Bishan Stadium had it not been for the thoughtfulness of a police officer. When I asked him about the closest place to park our car, he suggested I get my daughter to join the queue before trying to do that. It would take a long time, he told me. It did. In the 35 minutes it took me to find a parking space, my girl made it to the last lot of 50 in the queue.

Inside the stadium, we saw young volunteers walk in a straight line, carrying athletes' bags in plastic boxes.

In Toa Payoh, where we watched volleyball, six volunteers swept the floor in perfectly synchronised moves, making us wonder how hard they must have practised to pull it off.

The attention to detail extended to the fine sporting venues we visited, and the swiftness of the security checks.

After the athletics final at Bishan, traffic came to a halt for less than 30 seconds to let the official cars pass through. I know because I timed it.

We did not get to watch too many events live but, in those we did, it proved the Games were no child's play. Boys fought like men, girls dashed like grown-up Olympic champions. My son added new sporting heroes to his list every day. He learnt to cheer for the best sportsboy and sportsgirl. He heard many national anthems in one night and understood the world is beautiful because it is diverse.

As my friend and colleague Rohit Brijnath observed so rightly in one of his columns: 'A large games is a sporting quilt of a thousand threads.' The thousands of threads which went into the making of the YOG here were the finest of the lot.

I just wish more Singaporeans would stand up and salute their everyday heroes who made such a seamless and impressive show possible. From the helpful policemen to the smiling volunteers, they all blended together. Successfully presenting an untested form of the Games is a testament to their collective triumph.

deepikas@sph.com.sg