Recently, at The Olympic Museum, we welcomed two lovely champions: Stéphane Lambiel, the Swiss skater with an impressive record (twice world champion, twice European runner-up, silver medallist in Turin in 2006, and bronze medallist in the world championships); and Joannie Rochette, the talented Canadian skater who won a bronze medal in Vancouver last February, and who courageously competed in the events only two days after the sudden death of her mother.

These two young athletes came to make a donation to The Olympic Museum: Lambiel donated the zebra-striped suit he wore when he won the Olympic silver medal, and Rochette donated the first dress she wore in her Olympic short programme.

Olympic Museum Curator Frédérique Jamolli welcomed the young athletes and recalled how their performances, be it in Turin or Vancouver, had enthused and excited the general public, whom they had both won over.

Stéphane Lambiel and Joannie Rochette then received the Olympic Museum’s traditional donor’s certificate and signed the guest book. They both said that it was both a pleasure and an honour to make their donations, in the hope that these two outfits would provoke the same emotions in the visitors as they had felt themselves.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is greatly saddened to learn of the death of Anton Geesink, IOC Member from the Netherlands, at the age of 76.

A great athlete and a 10th dan judoka, Mr Geesink was an Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo in 1964 and a World Judo Champion in 1961, 1964 and 1965. He also won 21 European Judo Championship titles, was Dutch judo champion several times and a three-time national champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Mr Geesink dedicated his entire career to the promotion of sport and its values. He was an advisor to the Dutch Secretary of State for Sport, an honorary member of the International Judo Federation (IJF) and a lifetime honorary president of the European Judo Union.

Elected as an IOC member in 1987, he was a member of the Sport for All Commission, a member of the Evaluation Commission for the XIX Olympic Winter Games in 1996, and a delegate member for members’ responsibilities from 1992 to 2001. Since 2002, he played an active role during the Olympic Games as delegate member for Games Observation.

A teacher by profession, Mr Geesink was part of the Royal Military Academy in Breda and a professor at the Academy of Physical Education in Amsterdam and the Central Institute for the Education of Sports Teachers in Overveen. He was also a national and international judo instructor and coach.

Mr Geesink received a number of prestigious distinctions throughout his outstanding career, including the Queen’s Order of Knight of Oranje Nassau, the Prix de l’Académie Française, and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. He was an honorary doctor in letters at Tokyo’s Kokusikan University, unanimously elected to the IJF Hall of Fame in 2003, and named national sportsman of the year in his country four times. The City of Utrecht honoured him with a statue in the centre of the city in 1995.

He was the author of eleven books and articles on judo and sports education.
The IOC expresses its deepest sympathy to Anton Geesink’s family.

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Congratulations and thank you, Singapore, for a job superbly done.

You rose brilliantly to the challenge of combining elite sport, modern education and culture.

Throughout these 12 days, we all enjoyed the warm hospitality of the public authorities, of the very successful Organising Committee and of the 20,000 wonderful volunteers.

These Games will leave a great human legacy in Singapore and around the world.

These Games were full of innovation, creativity, joy and a sharing of Olympic values.

Dear athletes, you made us proud.

You have learnt what it means to be a true champion, not simply a winner.

You have shown us that a new generation is ready to embrace and share Olympic values.

You thrilled us with your splendid performances. But, more than that, you inspired us with your enthusiasm, your spirit and the sheer joy you brought to the task of competing, learning and living with fellow athletes from around the world.

These were truly inspirational games.

Dear athletes, you have now earned the title Young Olympian.

And when, years from now, you reflect on your sports career, you will be able to say:  “I was in Singapore, where it all began.”
The Youth Olympic Flame will go out tonight, but the spirit of Singapore will remain.

The International Olympic Committee will continue to promote this spirit at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and at the second Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

You, dear athletes, will keep this Singapore Spirit alive in your countries as true role models.

I now declare the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore closed, and, in accordance with tradition, I call upon the Youth of the World to assemble in four years’ time in Nanjing, China, for the second Summer Youth Olympic Games.

Thank you.

The Closing Ceremony of the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games brought a dramatic and emotional end to 12 days of world-class sporting competition and cultural and educational activities in Singapore on Thursday night.

Some 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 took part in the Singapore 2010 Games. They were accompanied by 1,850 officials, and some 20,000 volunteers helped make the organisational aspect of the Games a success.

Medals were won by nearly half of the nations and territories (93 of the 205 territories) taking part in the Games.  And the Games featured a number of exciting new innovations, including new sports formats like 3-on-3 basketball, combined discipline cycling, head-to-head sprints in canoe-kayak, and new technology such as the modern pentathlon laser gun. Many sports included a combination of mixed National Olympic Committee and mixed gender sports such as triathlon relays, archery, table tennis, fencing and swimming relays, to name but a few.

The more than 50 Culture and Education Programme activities were extremely popular with the athletes, so much so that additional sessions were added by the organisers. One of the most well-received CEP events was the Chat With Champions session featuring Olympic champion pole vaulters Sergey Bubka and Yelena Isinbaeva, who were a source of inspiration to the young athletes during a lively and often amusing question-and-answer period. Over the duration of the 12 days, almost all the 3,600 athletes visited the World Anti-Doping Agency and UNAIDS booths in the Youth Olympic Village.

The athletes participating in Singapore 2010 were joined by 29 Young Reporters, who actively provided content to the international media, while 30 Young Ambassadors supported and mentored their national delegations. Over 40 Athlete Role Models from the International Federations and International Olympic Committee also offered advice and tips to the athletes in and around the Athletes’ Village.

Global interest in the Youth Olympic Games has been strong, with over 160 rights-holding broadcasters providing coverage and over 1,900 accredited international media in attendance in Singapore. Videos on the Youth Olympic Games Channel have been viewed over five million times, and at one point it was the third most watched YouTube channel worldwide. To date, 36 per cent of all viewers have been under the age of 24. The Games were also broadcast live online on the Singapore 2010 Official Webcasting Platform.

The IOC has also reached out to a young audience around the world on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. More than half of the 3.6 million fans across the Olympic Facebook platforms are between the ages of 13 and 24. The Singapore 2010 and Youth Olympic Games pages now have more than 100,000 “fans”.

The Olympic.org website is receiving its highest number of views since Vancouver 2010, with over two million page views in August alone, while the Singapore Youth Olympic Games site has enjoyed more than a million visits since the start of the Games on 14 August.

The first winter edition of the Youth Olympic Games will take place in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012, while the second summer edition will kick off in Nanjing, China, in 2014.

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