Thursday, August 19, 2010

Youth Olympic Games up close

The current buzz about town is of course, the Youth Olympic Games. It's a historic event in both the Olympic and Singapore sporting annals although it seems to be plagued by unending controversy - a grossly escalating budget, non show of international athletes and the latest, food poisoning. I wouldn't be surprised if Vivian Balakrishnan and Teo Ser Luck age ten years when it's all over.

I'm not going to politicise the matter, you can probably read all the debate online anyway. For us, we're interested purely in the sports.

Andre has been following the coverage on tv judiciously. During the telecast of the opening ceremony, he lined up all his country erasers in alphabetical order to match the countries as they were announced. (We also enjoyed the side comedy of country reps walking haphazardly in all directions - the organisers probably forgot that not everyone in the world follows the leader automatically LOL).

As luck would have it, Andre's school managed to get tickets for all those in the badminton team to watch a couple of matches live at the Singapore Indoor Stadium which was a fantastic opportunity.

One of the matches he saw was between India and Laos in a preliminary round. Although he didn't manage to catch Singapore in action, it was still thrilling for him.

Watching the matches live has given Andre a renewed motivation to play competitively. Now he says he wants to represent Singapore in the YOG in the future. Well, it's just a pipe dream but every now and then, it's nice to view life through the eyes of an unjaded 9-year-old.
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8 comments:

  1. LilianAugust 19, 2010 at 6:11 PM

    *the organisers probably forgot that not everyone in the world follows the leader automatically* ROFL!!

    Anyway, Andre representing Singapore is no pipe dream. He has the passion, he's already on the way there, he should definitely pursue his dreams.

    Haven't seen any coverage of YOG here. Just checked today's Bangkok Post's sports page. Not a single article.

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  2. monlimAugust 19, 2010 at 6:22 PM

    Lilian: The international publicity of YOG has been so subdued. Dunno whose screw-up lah. btw the Thai boy in badminton is seriously good, he managed to beat China who was the Asian champ!

    Re: Andre, still a loooong way to go, don't want to think so far!

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  3. petite fleurAugust 19, 2010 at 8:49 PM

    I left it till too late as usual & by the time, I checked, all the events I wanted to go were all sold out (the popular ones like gymnastics & even equestrian). I finally secured tickets this Sat for......handball, which I think will still be fun.

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  4. monlimAugust 19, 2010 at 10:10 PM

    Mei: According to Kenneth, if you're really keen, you might wanna try your luck by going to the site. If it's relatively empty for the event, the organisers sell the tix on the spot. I think many who hold tickets either don't turn up or leave after a short time.

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  5. kjjAugust 20, 2010 at 12:02 AM

    as a communications professional, i can't quite see if the YOG team had a a set of clear objectives, let alone a clear communications strategy. there's a rojak of activities and messages made worse by ineffective delivery channels. such a shame!

    so, art thou up for watching any YOG games during weekdays? with me? (i feel that we shld go support these youngsters. can make placard, too. can't do pomp pomps, tho.)

    rgds - kjj

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  6. monlimAugust 20, 2010 at 12:38 AM

    KJJ: Would love to watch the games but guess what, it's right smack during the exam period!! So in between matches on tv, it's been drilling time for Andre, aiyoh...

    In spite of all the screw ups, I think the YOG is worthwhile just because of how much inspiration the kids take away from it. Plus it's such a great platform for some of these young athletes.

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  7. JoAugust 24, 2010 at 2:25 PM

    Hi Mon

    We also brought the kids to watch a swim event - my elder daughter had a chance to attend tennis and swimming through her school as well and she thoroughly enjoyed it.

    We were fortunate enough to go the night that Rainer Ng got his silver - very exciting. I don't know if all this truly motivates our girls but they certainly enjoyed the festive atmosphere with the clappers & flags!

    Otherwise the tv coverage by Starhub has been pretty good - the kids managed to watch a variety of competition snippets.

    We hope to catch the closing ceremony at the Float this Thurs - the kids have never gone to a similar event before - so it should be fun...looking forward to the fireworks :)

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  8. monlimAugust 24, 2010 at 3:52 PM

    Jo: Wah, watching Rainer Ng get his silver must have been exciting! I was just wondering who were the far-sighted folks who bought tix for the table tennis finals yesterday :D

    I think years from now when we look back, we'll think what a historic event this was and that we were part of it.

    Have fun at the closing ceremony!

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