Preparing future young athletes
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In addition to two weeks of first-class competition, the athletes will take part in a wide range of cultural and educational activities aimed at equipping them with the skills to make reasoned, intelligent decisions in life. The program will last the duration of the Youth Olympic Games and cover a host of topics, including the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle, the dangers of doping and the value of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
We want to provide the athletes with the tools they need to chart out their future. If they choose to continue with sport as a career - some may even go on to become Olympic champions - they must be fully aware that it is not a lifetime occupation. Even the greatest athletes typically end their sporting careers in the 30s.
Communicating with teenaged athletes who are potentially more receptive than their elder peers is crucial. The key is to present the information in a manner that the athletes find both enjoyable and relevant to their lives. At the end of the day, success rests on how much the athletes are willing to accept and embrace the information they receive.
As such, we are reaching out in the most modern and interactive ways possible. The Youth Olympic Games enjoys a strong and growing presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. We have created contests that challenge the online community to move away from their computer screens and get active. And we have enlisted some of the world's top athletes, including Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva and Michael Phelps, to support the athletes by acting as role models and sharing their experiences and insights.
Above all, the Youth Olympic Games and the cultural and educational activities should be fun. We want to encourage youngsters not only to strive to be the best, but also to enjoy sport for sport's sake and to continue enjoying it long after their dreams of winning medals have faded.
The Youth Olympic Games will give the athletes a chance to compete, to learn and to share their experiences with other young people. It is our hope that the athletes will act as ambassadors and be active in their communities by sharing what they learn when they return home from Singapore.
If the Youth Olympic Games can help provide the world's youth, one at a time, with a path to a better, brighter and healthier future, we will have succeeded. And very soon the Youth Olympic Games will become as much an indispensable fixture on the Olympic calendar as its "grown-up" brothers.
The author is president of the International Olympic Committee.
