Host city | Moscow |
---|---|
Nations | 140 (estimated) |
Athletes | 7,500 (estimated) |
Opening | July 11 |
Closing | July 19 |
Opened by | Boris Yeltsin President of Russia |
Main venue | Luzhniki Stadium |
The 1998 World Youth Games was the first international multi-sport event of its kind. More than 7,500 young athletes representing 140 countries [1] of the world participated in this event. The Games took place in Moscow, Russia from July 11 to 19, 1998.
The opening ceremony was held in the Luzhniki Stadium (Стадион "Лужники"). It included 32 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, 43 National Olympic Committee (NOC) presidents, Boris Yeltsin – then current president of the Russian Federation, Yuri Luzhkov – mayor of Moscow, with the presence of 80,000 spectators. [2] One of the most emotional moments of the ceremony was the arrival of the Olympic flame, after traveling through 13 regions of the Russian Federation. Another spectacular moment was when 2 Russian cosmonauts greeted all the spectators directly from Orbital Station Mir. The mayor of Moscow and the IOC President addressed the spectators, and Boris Yeltsin declared the World Youth Games opened.
More than 7,500 [2] young athletes under 17 years of age [3] representing 140 countries competed in a variety of sports that included basketball, football, volleyball, handball, tennis and table tennis, track and field athletics, swimming, synchronized swimming, gymnastics and modern rhythmic gymnastics, fencing, judo and Greco-Roman wrestling.
The main objectives of the first World Youth Games were to involve the young participants in the Olympic movement and promote the Olympic spirit of friendship and mutual understanding among peoples, preparing their psychological and aptitude conditions for international starts and also selecting young talents for the participation in future Olympic Games. [1]
Beginning from 2010, the Youth Olympic Games were to be held every four years in staggered summer and winter events complementing the Olympic Games, [4] [5] thus rendering the World Youth Games obsolete.
The motto of the World Youth Games was “the open world for childhood” and its mascot was Mishka (Мишка) [6] – the Russian Bear that was also the mascot of the XXII Summer Olympic Games in Moscow 1980. [7]
On November 27, 1995, a small government delegation from Moscow visited the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland in order to rally support for the organization of a major international youth competition under IOC patronage in the Russian capital. [2] Moscow's delegation argued that the city had a strong experience of staging sport events. The IOC granted its patronage to the “World Youth Games” and an agreement was signed in April 1997 between the IOC, the city of Moscow and the Russian Olympic Committee, setting out the event.
After the agreement was signed, Moscow started its infrastructure preparations. It undertook 2 major projects. The first was the renovation of the Luzhniki Sports Arena, which was completed in September, 1997 at Moscow's 850th anniversary. [8] [9] The stadium was built in 1955, and in 1980 it became the heart of the XXII Summer Olympic Games. The other major project was the construction of the Olympic village. This contraction was placed under the control of the city administration and it was based on the plan of the 1980 Olympic Village. The Village constituted of five 19-to-25 story buildings, a complex-sport gymnasium, a cycling track and a massive cafeteria. In addition, its landscape included artificial hills and a lake. Later, this complex-building became one of the most prestigious residential areas in the city.
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The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad and officially branded as Moscow 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia. The games were the first to be staged in an Eastern Bloc country, as well as the first Olympic Games and only Summer Olympics to be held in a Slavic language-speaking country. They were also the only Summer Olympic Games to be held in a self-proclaimed communist country until the 2008 Summer Olympics held in China. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC Presidency of Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin before he was succeeded by Juan Antonio Samaranch, a Spaniard, shortly afterward.
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Luzhniki Palace of Sports, formerly the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium, is a sports arena in Moscow, Russia, a part of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex. Built in 1956, it originally had a spectator capacity of 13,700. In the past it was the host site of the world and European championships in ice hockey, gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, boxing, skateboarding and other sports.
Youth Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event for athletes aged 15 to 18 years old. Organized by the International Olympic Committee, the Games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consistent with the current Olympic Games format, though in reverse order with the Olympic Winter Games held in leap years instead of the Games of the Olympiad. The first summer version was held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010 while the first winter version was held in Austria from 13 to 22 January 2012.
The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010, it was the first International Olympic Committee–sanctioned event held in Southeast Asia. The Games featured about 3,600 athletes aged 14–18 from 204 nations, who competed in 201 events in 26 sports. No official medal tables were published, but the most successful nation was China, followed by Russia; host Singapore did not win any gold medals. Most unique features of the YOG, such as mixed-NOCs teams and the Culture and Education Programme (CEP), made their debut at the 2010 Games.
Vitaly Georgyevich Smirnov is a former athlete from the Soviet Union and longtime sports administrator.
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For the 1980 Summer Olympics, a total of twenty-eight sports venues were used. The first venue used for the Games was built in 1923. With the creation of the Spartakiad in Moscow in 1928, more venues were constructed. Central Lenin Stadium Grand Arena was built in 1956 for that year's versions of the Spartkiad. A plan in 1971 to construct more sports venues by 1990 was initiated, but accelerated in 1974 when Moscow was awarded the 1980 Games. The new venues to be used for the Games were completed in 1979. During the Games themselves at the permanent road cycling venue, the first ever constructed, the largest margin of victory was recorded in the individual road race cycling event since 1928. The Grand Arena hosted the football final that was played in a rainstorm for the third straight Olympics. After the 1991 break of the Soviet Union, the venues in Kiev, Minsk, and Tallinn would be located in Ukraine, Belarus, and Estonia, respectively. Luzhniki Stadium, formerly Grand Arena, continues to be used, and it was affected by the Luzhniki disaster in 1982. The stadium served as host for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in 2013. Another venue, the Moscow Canoeing and Rowing Basin, served as host to the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in 2014. In December 2010, Russia was awarded the 2018 FIFA World Cup with Luzhniki Stadium and Dynamo Stadium proposed as venues for those events.
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