Sports: Green signal for new Youth Games

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Guatemala city, July 6 : The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved a plan to stage summer and winter Youth Games to try to overturn the dwindling interest of teenagers in the movement.

With the average age of television viewers of the Olympics increasing and youngsters turning away, the IOC has said it needs to change to secure its survival.

''The Olympic Games are a premier event,'' President Jacques Rogge told an IOC session in Guatemala City. ''It is our duty to make sure they remain a success in the future.'' For athletes aged 14-18, the first summer Games will take place in 2010 and the inaugural winter edition two years later.

The first host city will be decided next February.

The summer Youth Olympics will cost about 30 million dollar and the winter version between 15 million dollars to 20 million dollars, Rogge said.

He added that judges, referees and delegation officials would also be young people.

Rogge said six unnamed cities had already expressed an interest in staging the 2010 event.

''This is not about business. It should not be profit-making Games,'' said IOC executive director Gilbert Felli. ''They will not be copying the Olympic Games.'' Felli said the athletes would be selected a year and a half in advance and the host countries could be smaller ones unable to stage the Olympics.

''Maybe these Games could go to countries that do not have the capacity to organise Olympics,'' he said.

''The IOC has decided to go very quickly with the first edition. We need to show some intention.'' Alex Gilady, an IOC member from Israel and a vice-president of NBC, said the US broadcaster had told the IOC it was interested in the event.

Reuters>