SINGAPORE: The International Olympic Committee says up to 17 countries have expressed interest in hosting future Youth Olympics, including the United States and others from Africa and Latin America. The inaugural winter games will be held in Innsbruck, Austria in 2012 and the next summer games in Nanjing, China in 2014. Lillehammer, Norway, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, is the only city which has expressed an interest in hosting the 2016 winter games, the IOC said, and has until November to submit a formal bid. The IOC's Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli said Saturday that an African and Latin American country as well as "some cities in the United States" have expressed interest in hosting the event in 2018 and beyond, but would not name them. "We have had discussions with the USOC (US Olympic Committee) and some cities in the US who have the idea for the winter or summer games," Felli told reporters. "One day, they would like to come with a bid." IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the IOC is emphasizing the use of existing facilities — as in the current inaugural event in Singapore — which makes the youth event more attractive to cities with smaller budgets. "It gives them a chance to participate, to take part in the whole Olympic ideal," Adams said. "That is why there is interest from cities which would probably never have thought of getting involved and could never see themselves as serious contenders for staging an Olympic event." IOC President Jacques Rogge praised the Singapore event as it reached the halfway point Saturday. Education programs, like talks with elite athletes, have been popular with the youngsters while fans have taken to the new sports like 3-on-3 basketball. "So far everything is going smoothly and we've been very pleased with the organization, the competition and the non-sport activities," Rogge said in a statement. "While it is impossible to provide a full assessment of the Games until after they're over, so far we are very satisfied." The IOC said the popularity of the games is reaching well beyond Singapore. The Youth Olympics' YouTube channel, part of a broad social media campaign, has had 2.8 million hits which is higher than the traffic for the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. The Youth Olympics has 3,500 followers on Twitter and a popular Facebook page. Organizers from Innsbruck, who plan to host the inaugural Winter Youth Olympics in 2012 containing 1,050 athletes from 70 countries, said the Singapore Games have given them confidence. "It's taken some pressure off us because now we know it can work," said Peter Bayer, chief executive of Innsbruck 2012. Felli, however, said the IOC had concerns that many venues this week were far from full — despite all tickets having been sold. "You have some sessions where people are coming in the morning and watching for a while and then leaving and they don't come for the afternoon and evening session. That is something of a disappointment," Felli said. "But it was much fuller last night than the beginning of the week so they are working on that to bring more people in." The inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore is a 12-day event in which 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees compete in 26 sports. Odane Skeen of Jamaica ran 10.42 seconds to win the boys' 100 gold Saturday, beating Masaki Nashimoto of Japan and Britain's David Bolarinwa. Nigeria's Josephine Omaka won the girls' 100 gold ahead of Myasia Jacobs of the United States and Dominican Republic's Fany Chalas. Russia's Ekaterina Bleskina beat out Michelle Jenneke of Australia to win the gold in the girl's 100-meter hurdles while Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic took gold in the boy's 400 meters, ahead of Ruan Greyling of South Africa. In archery, Egypt's Ibrahim Sabry took gold in junior individual category, easily defeating Rick Van Den Oever of the Netherlands. Medals are also scheduled to be handed out in artistic gymnastics, athletics, diving, judo, modern pentathlon and tennis. China leads the games with 20 golds and 33 medals overall. Russia is second with 15 golds and 32 overall, while South Korea has seven golds. Tang Yi has been the star of the games so far. The 17-year-old Chinese has won six of her country's 11 swimming golds. American athletes had their best day of the games Saturday, winning two golds, a silver and a bronze. Until Saturday, Americans had won only one gold along with four silvers and two bronzes. –Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
