IOC says many countries interested in hosting future Youth Olympics

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 2014 winter games, the IOC said, and has until November to submit a formal bid.

The IOC's Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli said 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 said. "One day, they would like to come with a bid."

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the IOC is emphasising the use of existing facilities 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 yesterday. Education programmes, like talks with elite athletes, have been popular with the youngsters while fans have taken to the new sports like three-on-three basketball.

"We've been pleased with the organisation, the competition and the non-sport activities," said Rogge. "While impossible to provide a full assessment of the Games until they're over, so far we are very satisfied."

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. So far, medals have been awarded to athletes from 60 countries.

Great Britain's Oliver Golding won gold in the boys' tennis doubles after he and Czech partner Jiri Vesely saw off Victor Baluda and Mikhail Biryukov in straight sets yesterday. Golding made up for the disappointment of a quarter-final exit in the singles with a 6-3 6-1 triumph over the Russian duo in 53 minutes at Kallang Tennis Centre in Singapore.

"I'm over the moon," he said. "A gold medal, it's what I came here to get and I've got one."