Youth Olympic Games Overview
The 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG), officially known as the III Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held from 6 October in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It will host events in international sports, cultural, and educational field.
-- Advertisement --The bidding process started in early 2011, with IOC receiving 6 bids. Later, in February 2013, IOC declared Buenos Aires as the winning bidders for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games. Glasgow lost out in first round and Medellin, Buenos’ last contender, lost in last round.
Argentinian footballer and Olympic gold medalist, Lionel Messi, is the ambassador of the 2018 YOG.
-- Advertisement --What is different in this edition’s YOG?
It will be the first Summer Youth Olympic Games to be held outside of Asia. Also, it will be the first Youth Games for either summer or winter to be held outside Eurasia.
This time, the YOG will witness 8 new events for the first time ever – Kitesurfing, Karate, Cross country running, beach handball, roller speed skating, sport climbing, breakdancing and BMX freestyle.
These events were selected especially to alleviate the gender balance of the Games.
Also, Futsal will be played in place of football at the Buenos Aires Games. Futsal is a modern 5-on-5 football game played in a smaller and artificial indoor
Schedule
The 2018 Summer Youth Olympics will commence from 6th October, when the opening ceremony will take place. The games will commence from 7th October.
The YOG will conclude on 18th October, with 3 finals (Futsal, Beach Volleyball and Boxing) to be held alongside the closing ceremony on the final day.
Here is the full schedule for the games.
India at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
India will field a strong contingent of 46 athletes at the Youth Olympics. This is India’s highest ever contingent to the games. Out of the 46 athletes, 25 are male and 21 are females. Their segregation according to sports is as given below
| Sports | Boys | Girls | Total | Events |
| Archery | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Athletics | 5 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
| Badminton | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Boxing | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Field Hockey | 9 | 9 | 18 | 2 |
| Judo | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Rowing | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Shooting | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Sport Climbing | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Swimming | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Table Tennis | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Weightlifting | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Wrestling | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 25 | 21 | 46 | 36 |
Shooting and Hockey – India’s biggest hope for medals
India’s biggest hope for a YOG medal will be from the shooting and hockey event. In shooting, India have four participants for the eight shooting events- Boy’s and Girl’s pistol and rifle events and four mixed events for the same.
Manu Bhaker, the teenage shooting sensation, is a favourite to win at least one medal for the country. She won the Commonwealth Games gold and World Cup gold among juniors twice and women. The 16 year-old also had an exceptional Asian Games campaign.
Bhaker will also be the flag bearer for the opening ceremony event. Bhaker, who plays in Girl’s 10m air pistol event and the corresponding mixed event, said she was honoured (and surprised) by the announcement.
In addition to Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary would be another star India will have their hopes pinned to. He has also won the Asiad gold and the World Championship gold (juniors event).
India’s youth hockey teams also have shown much promise, with both the boy’s and girl’s teams qualifying for YOG. The boy’s team is placed in pool B. Australia, Kenya and Canada are their notable opponents. The girl’s team, on the other hand are placed in pool A. They will face hosts Argentina and their fellow south americans, Uruguay.
